Divine Intervention
by Ruphira
Summary: She just moved to Forget-Me-Not Valley to farm her way to glory and rescue a banished goddess; her parents are a bit worried. He's only interested in cold science and logic. Both their lives will flip upside down when he is sent to watch over her. HM:DSC
1. Joan of Arc

**A/N-Just as an FYI, I made some minor changes to some characters for the purpose of this fic. Basically all I did was make Mineral Town's Cliff a generation older than the other bachelors.**

**(EDITED: May 14, 2012)**

**Enjoy! =)**

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(The second of Spring.)

_Inhale, exhale._

Trent dragged his brown, 100%-leather duffle bag out from under his bed with a grunt. Heaving it onto his mattress, he heard Elli pass his room dragging her suitcase behind her. Pausing at his door, she stuck her head inside and yelled into his room, "I hope you're almost finished—we're leaving in five!"

"Yeah, almost done!" he called back, scrambling for last-minute clothes to mash into the waiting bag. (Trent had _meant _to pack the night before.) Where did he put that stupid coat? Had to be in this mess of sheets somewhere…

(The first of Spring, and the first official day of Trent's contract—after years of training—as Mineral Town's new doctor…and it was his day off.)

Also, he was running late. The young man ran an anxious hand through his already disheveled black hair, fighting to control his panic. "Elli? Have you seen my coat?"

In reply, there was a loud crash from near the bottom of the stairs.

Trent exhaled heavily, blowing strands of black bangs asunder. _Nothing was going right today. _"Are you okay?" he shouted. "What happened?" Elli didn't answer, but he heard her footsteps padding up the stairs, and the nurse soon appeared at his door. He looked her over quickly, searching for injury. "Elli?"

"_This _happened!" Grinning, she offered his white lab coat to him, neatly folded over her arm. "It was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. I didn't see it with my bag."

"Oh—I'm terribly sorry," he said. "Did you hurt yourself?"

Elli smiled sunnily. "Not at all." She glanced down at his nearly empty suitcase. "Hey, you said you were almost finished, you liar. Go go go! Dr. Hardy will have my head if we're late." She bounced out of the room and bounded downstairs, calling over her shoulder, "I'll be waiting in the waiting room!"

"Funny funny," Trent murmured, throwing the lab coat into the gaping maw of his bag, and taking a few minutes to hunt around his badly organized room for some pants. The doctor grinned victoriously to himself as he located a pair of mostly-clean, slightly wrinkled black dress slacks, and tossed them in. He zipped up the duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder as he walked out of the room, took the stairs two at a time, crossed the waiting room in seconds, and was reaching for the Clinic door when it unceremoniously flew open on him. There was an unhealthy smack as it struck his face.

"Oh! Oh, my!"

"Don't worry abou—"

"I'm really sorry, Doctor!"

Trent massaged his jaw and regarded the person in the doorway. It was Tess, the town's resident rancher—that was her name, right? Tess Kelley? He was still getting used to the people here—framed faintly in the light of the rising sun. Her pale blonde hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, streaked with silver, and her laugh lines flashed with her friendly grin. She apologized, biting back her amusement. _She must be getting on fifty,_ Trent thought vaguely. _She was probably here farming before I was even born. _

He nodded his head stiffly, shrugging off her apologies and trying not to appear too impatient. "Not to worry, Mrs. Kelley…you didn't know I was here. My survival prospects are looking good." Elli giggled uneasily behind him. Then, abruptly, she grabbed his arm and began pushing him forward gently but persistently towards the doorway, prompting him to glance down at his watch. They were cutting it close… Time to cut the gab. "Er, can I help you, ma'am?"

"Ah, yes, actually," Tess said uncomfortably. "I have a request for you."

Trent forced an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry—could you come another time? Elli and I have to leave, but we'll be back Thursday morning."

"Wait—it has to do with where you're going."

Trent stared. How did she know where they were headed? "Forget-Me-Not Valley?" he asked, and the farmer nodded, to his surprise. "Oh? Do you want us to pick something up for you?"

Tess chuckled, her eyes lowered slightly. "You have no idea. You remember my daughter, Ella? You might not. She's probably a few years younger than you, and she wasn't around much during your training, so…" She trailed off.

Tess's daughter? Who was Tess even married to? (Maybe he should have paid more attention to the townspeople during orientation.) Chewing his lip, Trent mulled it over. Finally, coming up blank, he said, "I'm afraid I don't remember her."

"I do!" Elli piped up. "She's blonde like you, and about your height, and her hair is really long. She used to hang around the Goddess Pond with me sometimes, when I was…" Elli paused as Trent turned to look at her with one eyebrow arched. "…when I was…um…on break…?"

Tess smiled at the nurse. "Yes, that would be her. Anyway, I was wondering—that is, Cliff and I hoped—well, since you're there once a week and all, we thought maybe you could…sort of, keep in touch with her, I guess? Check up on her and make sure she's doing alright?"

Trent found himself staring blankly at the farmer again. "Wait—she's in Forget-Me-Not now?"

Elli tilted her head to one side, their time crunch forgotten. "Why?"

Tess sighed. "She…I don't know, she went Joan of Arc on us and told us she had to go off and farm in the name of the Goddess, or something. She didn't give us many details."

Both of Trent's eyebrows shot up. Elli's mouth fell open slightly. Trent felt the urge to laugh and faked a sneeze instead. _Farming in the name of the Goddess? Is she for real?_

"Bless you," Elli said, punning without realizing it, and looked Tess square in the eye, all sunshiney hospitality. "Of course, we'd be happy to check on her! This is probably the first time she's been on her own." Trent looked sharply at the nurse—what were they getting into here?

Relief flooded the middle-aged woman's eyes. "I can't thank you enough, we've been so worried! She's only 21, and off on her own in the world in the new year…knowing her, she would rather starve to death than admit she needs help, and that's what we're afraid will happen. It's so good to know we have an inside team."

"Deal, then," Trent said, extending his hand and sighing inwardly. Babysitting someone's wayward, potentially psycho daughter was not high on his list of favourite ways to pass the time in Forget-Me-Not Valley—there was training to be done. Training never ended. But, alas…Tess and Elli shook next, and then the nurse thought to check her watch.

"Great Goddess!" she exclaimed, fairly shoving the doctor off the threshold and into the street. "We're laaaate! We'd best be going! Pleasure doing business with you, Mrs. Kelley. See you Thursday!"

"I'll be looking forward to the update," the rancher smiled. "Again, thank you so much. Until Thursday."


	2. Spies Next Door

_**Disclaimer: **__**I do not own the Harvest Moon series! *crosses heart***_

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_Her mother stood in the doorway, fully dressed for the day's work, with her hands on her hips and feet planted firmly on the ground. A thin, small man in a yellow tunic blocked her exit, trying to convince her to buy from him. Finally, she dismissed him and slammed the door closed. _

_Ella watched from her seat at the table. Her mom walked back to the table and cleared her breakfast dishes, putting them in the kitchen sink. As she pawed through the fridge, she called to her daughter:_

"_Honey, how would you like to run me an errand?"_

_Ella scooted out of her chair and ducked under the table, running to her mother and hugging her around the knees excitedly. Tess dug around in her pockets for spare change._

"_Here." Her daughter took the money, gazing at it with wide eyes. "Run to the supermarket and pick me up two loaves of bread, alright?"_

_Ella wandered off, examining the money. "Ella," Tess called. "How many loaves of bread does Mommy need?"_

"_Two!" _

_Tess smiled, and opened the door for her daughter. "Okay, honey. Tell Jeff Mommy says hi." _

_Freed, Ella sprinted off through the field, first an airplane and then a dragonfly. Wolf, Tess's dog, barked and ran around her heels. The little girl giggled, remembered her task, and ran to the pathway connecting Riverside to the rest of Mineral Town. _

_The man in the banana shirt, as Tess called him, was walking slowly down the pathway. Ella caught her breath and looked at him thoughtfully. He looked unhappy. The little blonde stuck her hands in her pockets, rooting around for something to cheer him up._

_She found a green plastic whistle. Bringing it to her lips and deciding if she really wanted to give it up, she walked toward him. _

_A sharp tweet prompted Won to turn around to look at the little girl. She grinned broadly and held up the whistle to him. "For you!" she told him happily. The shrewd merchant took the toy, examined it, and stuffed it in his pocket. He kept walking. Ella blinked, confused. Wolf barked and raced ahead, and she chased after him. As she passed, Won caught the hint of green poking out of her pockets._

"_Little girl!"_

_She skidded to a stop. He caught up with her and crossed his arms. "How about a nice, crunchy angelic apple?" Ella smiled sunnily. _

"_Yes, please!" She didn't care what kind of apple it was. Food was food! Won kneeled down to look at her, eye-to-eye. _

"_That'll be 500G," he told her, smiling. The little girl's spirits fell._

"_Oh," she said. "I only have 200G for bread. It's for my mom. She gave me a job." _

"_That's nice," Won said, thinking fast. "How about I give you the apple for 200G and the whistle? It's a very important apple. This is a special offer I will only make to you. Your mom will like it better than bread, I guarantee." _

_Ella didn't know the big word, but it sounded promising. She wanted to make her mom happy, and she looked at the man trustingly. "Okay!"_

(The second of Spring.)

The second official day of her new life—but the first _actual _one. Yesterday had been spent unpacking and being dragged into New Year's celebrations and cowering in the corner of her rundown farm house, sobbing at the state of the ruined fields she'd bought and wondering what she'd gotten herself into and—no, no. Scratch that part. This farm thing? It was going to work.

_Inhale, exhale. _

Ella Kelley, Tess's daughter, newest resident of Forget-Me-Not Valley and certainly its most overwhelmed farmer, knelt in front of a bush, plucked one last berry from its stem and dropped it into her full basket. Looking at her haul with satisfaction, she pulled herself stiffly to her feet and stretched.

Tomorrow, she'd hit the mines again, and then maybe in a week's time, she'd be able to afford a barn. Then the _real_ work would begin. Today, she was satisfied with her basket of berries; it represented the day's breakfast. And lunch. And dinner, unless she'd eaten them all by then…

…(In which case, she would camp outside the Blue Bar with Murray and beg for food. Haha, just kidding! … Maybe.)

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"Let's go."

"Now?" Trent whined.

Elli stared at him pointedly. The physician grumbled and tugged at the bright yellow, glittery, embellished tunic hanging off of him uncomfortably—a gift from Romana, whom Hardy had dragged the two to examine earlier that day. Trent, apparently, had delighted the old woman in his strikingly similar appearance to her late brother, and she'd convinced him to try on one of his old shirts.

Trent, being the organizational genius that he was, had left his own dress shirt behind, balled-up on a table in her house. Now he was stuck in this ridiculous garment made of scratchy, sparkling fibers that belonged in a tap dancing costume—not a man's shirt. Trent sighed deeply. _Why today? _"Fine. Let's go see if Joan of Arc is home…hey, what's her name, anyway?"

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Passing the threshold onto her property, Ella stopped short. There were two people at her door—a man and a woman—but the one that grabbed her attention was the man. He wore a bright yellow, high-necked tunic with black embellishments, his hair was jet-black, and his back was to her.

Ella panicked.

What was this? Were there little Won carbon-copies in every town? The only thing this dude was missing was the ridiculous parachute-hat. She admitted to herself that she wouldn't be entirely surprised if it were the original Won, traveling from Mineral Town to try and trick her yet again.

Ever since her naïve mistake as a six-year-old, he'd relentlessly tempted her with "deals" on overpriced trinkets and guarantees. Not only was it annoying, but it got to be downright creepy. Won didn't seem to realize that as she grew up, she could figure out his fancy wording and worthless guarantees with ease. Her mother told her that in the city, there were hundreds of men who did that sort of thing as a paid job. And she would know.

Ella stood at the border of her farm, indecisive. She contemplated fleeing. But then how long would she have to stay away? She was hungry too—she wanted to get inside and make something to eat with her foraged goods.

Well, if they didn't see her today, they'd just come back later; with her luck, probably when she was in her pajamas and sick with the flu. _Maybe I should wait until then so I can pass it along… _

No. Better to get it over with now. Squaring her shoulders, she walked determinedly towards them. At least approaching them, she was in the position of power.

"Good afternoon," she called out, in as professional a voice as she could muster, as she neared them. "I'm afraid I'm not interested in any wares you might be selling. As you can see, I'm a new rancher, and I need to save my money for more essential things. But thank you for coming."

The duo turned. The woman wore a blue frilly dress. Her brown hair was cropped at her chin, and curled under slightly. Her eyes were big and brown, and her little smile was warm. _A solicitous smile…_Ella thought darkly.

The man had dark, angular eyes and his mouth thinned into a line as he bit his lower lip thoughtfully. He scratched self-consciously at his sleeve, assessing her. His hair was mussed in every direction, like he had just rolled out of bed. _The shrewd dealer! _Ella decided, and waited for them to answer her.

A few beats passed in silence as they all blinked at each other wordlessly.

Finally, the man spoke. He sounded completely lost. "Excuse me…?"

Ella chewed her lip uncomfortably, glancing between them. "Aren't you merchants? …"

The woman walked in front of the man, still smiling at Ella. She brushed the blonde's arm with her hand. "Ella, it's us—Dr. T and Elli? Ah, actually, you two have probably never met." She grinned wider as Ella's mouth fell open.

Elli—the nurse-in-training from last year! _Now _she recognized her; her hair was just different. The blonde felt like an imbecile, blushed hotly and quickly covered up her embarrassment with friendliness.

"Ohh! Elli, hi! You cut your hair!" The two women laughed. Elli was giddy.

"Yeah, I figured it was more practical when we went back to school! I decided I liked the cut so much, I'd just keep it! But anyway, we came back to the town few days ago. Guess what—we got the permanent job!"

"Ah! Great! Congratulations!" Ella laughed. The girls weren't particularly close, but Elli hugged the farmer tightly, as if she'd missed her every second of training.

"It's good to see you again," Ella added, grinning. Then she turned to the man, and offered her hand awkwardly. "Uh—hi, I'm Ella Kelley. Pleased to meet you."

He shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you too," he replied. "You've probably already figured this out, but I'm the new doctor. My name is Trent." The doctor quickly glanced her over, and couldn't help but admit that she was pretty as she smiled uncomfortably up at him. Her face was heart-shaped and smooth as porcelain; her almond-shaped eyes were a startling shade of clear blue. Long blonde hair hung behind her, tied back in a ponytail, and there was an intelligent look to her despite the wobbly introduction.

"I'm very sorry," Ella continued. "I mistook you for a Won clone. I thought you were trying to sell me something, so I just wanted to nip it in the bud…" She trailed off and stuffed her hands in her overalls pockets.

Trent scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well," he began, "I understand where you're coming from. I mean…" he glanced down at his top, pulling at it. Elli giggled.

"He doesn't usually wear that ghastly thing," she said conspiratorially to Ella. Ella was taken aback.

"No, no—I mean, there's nothing wrong with it—it's a very fine tunic…"

Trent came close to smiling. "No," he said firmly, "it's not. Romana had me try it on and then I left my actual shirt back in her manor, so I'm stuck with this thing."

Ella laughed out loud. "Ahhh, that explains a lot!"

Elli waved her hand, grinning. "Well, that aside," she said, "how are you doing?"

Oh. Ella's stomach dropped. She finally understood why they were here.

_Mom sent them._

Well, this was just perfect—she couldn't send someone that Ella actually _knew_, could she? Gray, or Kai, or Ann…Ohh no, that would make Ella's life easier. No matter how deep a rut she got into here, these two were going to be honest to her mother; the cunning, frustrating woman…

Ella tried on her best game face. "Great!" she replied cheerfully. "I'm planning on asking Gotz to build me a barn sometime next week, and then things will really get rolling."

"Nice!" Elli said. "This is a big place you got here. It's looking good, though." She looked out over the expanse of fields, littered with scraggly weeds, rocks, and the occasional stump.

"Thanks," Ella replied. "So… what brings you here to Forget-Me-Not?" _Maybe they won't come very often…_

"My old colleague and teacher, Dr. Hardy," Trent answered. "We're meeting every Wednesday. We just thought we'd drop by and see…how you were doing."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm doing very well," Ella told them pointedly, with a phoney smile. "I'll be just fine."

"Good to hear," Trent said briskly. "Well, let's get back to Hardy, Elli." He ushered the nurse towards the farm entrance. "Remember to drop by if you have any health concerns, Miss Kelley."

"I will," Ella called. She blushed as she recalled their meeting. "I'm sorry, again."

"No problem!" By now, they were out of sight.

Ella exhaled deeply, as if deflating, against the wall of her house. Well. This was sudden, but it wasn't altogether unexpected. Of course her worrying, fretful mother would enlist a couple of third party strangers to spy on her. It seemed like she was more concerned about Ella now than when she was a little girl…

Walking inside her house, the farmer set her lunch basket on the table and washed her hands. _Lunch, _she thought, looking at the basket hungrily, _is served. _


	3. Backup

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the Harvest Moon franchise.**_

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"So, what do you think of Ella?"

Trent and Elli were back at the Inn, enjoying one of Ruby's homemade meals—well, Elli was, anyway. Trent sat busy at his laptop, his dinner untouched.

The nurse nudged him.

"Huh?"

"What do you think of her?"

Trent turned his attention back to the screen. "Who?"

Elli rolled her eyes and made an exasperated noise. "_Ella_!"

"Oh," he said. With a shrug, he continued, "she seems normal."

"She does! With all her mom's talk of all this rescuing-the-goddess business, I expected her to be a raving lunatic living in a tie-dyed teepee meditating all day."

"Mmm." Trent wasn't paying much attention.

Elli scraped the last of her food off her plate and looked longingly at the soup beside his. "You gonna eat that?"

"That's nice," the doctor replied distantly.

"Trent. I asked a question. I did not make a statement." She looked directly at him; he didn't reply. "Are you going to be on your laptop all night?"

"What? Oh. Probably. Go ahead and have the soup." His eyes never strayed from the screen. Elli shook her head and pulled the soup over in front of her.

"Sometimes I wonder if you ever saw a computer in your _life _before coming to Mineral Town…"

Trent turned to look at her with big, earnest eyes. "I did actually. In a museum once."

Elli stared.

Trent turned back to his laptop. "That was a joke."

The nurse tittered. "Thanks for clarifying!"

He didn't reply.

Elli finished off his soup. She waited beside him, trying to think of a topic.

"So…what do we say to Mrs. Kelley?"

"Hmm? About what?"

"Her daughter!"

"Oh. Right." He sat back with a sigh, tapping his fingers lightly on the keyboard.

"First of all, we assure her that Ella is not, in fact…"

"…certifiably insane?"

Elli giggled. "That, too. I thinking more along the lines of 'not in danger of foreclosure'."

"Yet," Trent remarked drily. "I wonder if the goddess pays her pawns well?"

Elli smiled. "Trent, you're being mean."

"No, I'm being skeptical. Don't tell me you believe in this sort of thing?"

"Well, Mineral Town does have a goddess pond—you remember. Ella and some of the other girls used to say a goddess would appear if you made an offering to her."

"That sounds macabre."

"Nooo—not a _sacrifice. _Just, like, flowers." Elli leaned over and closed his laptop. The doctor rolled his eyes.

"Sure, sure." Pushing back his chair, he tucked the computer under his arm and made to stand up.

"But they must have seen something!" the nurse insisted, standing up as well.

Trent scoffed. "Little girls don't need to have any material proof to believe that there's a princess, or a goddess, or whatever, camping out in their backyards."

"I thought I saw her once," Elli confided. "She was beautiful, but kind of hard to see. Maybe it's because I saw her when I was grown."

"Maybe it's because you dreamed it," Trent called over his shoulder as they made their way upstairs.

Elli bit her lip. "It didn't feel like a dream, though."

"There's a logical explanation for everything, Elli."

The nurse exhaled in annoyance. "You're so—sciencey!"

"A sciencey doctor," Trent mused, reaching the top of the staircase. "Of all the bizarre things life throws at you…a _sciencey doctor._"

She punched his back lightly at his sarcasm. "You know what I mean. You have no imagination."

The doctor reached his door, turning to meet her eyes as she passed. His tone grew cold. "Terribly sorry to disappoint you."

Elli blushed a bit. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you."

"Hmmm," Trent said, closing one eye. "Good night." He went into his room, and Elli stood back and watched the door close firmly behind him, unable to think of a reply.

She lingered in the hallway, biting her lip. After a few minutes, she turned on her heel and headed towards her own room.

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_Bells tinkled. The hinges on the blacksmith's door, thirsty for oil, creaked as the heavy door was opened. A blonde girl strolled in and wiped her shoes on the mat._

"_Hello, Saibara! My mother broke another tool this morning. She's willing to pay extra to make it a priority repair."_

"_Mornin', Ella. The scythe again? What is she doing to those poor weeds?"_

_Ella laughed. "She's definitely cracking down on them this spring. I haven't damaged my scythe at all, though, but I'm due..."_

"_Well, feel free to bring it in whenever. Now, let's take a look-see at this…"_

_Saibara leaned across the counter to received the scythe; Ella hefted it up to him. Suddenly, a loud clattering crash originating from near the forge caused both to gasp and Ella to jump._

"_GRAY!" The old man roared, in a flash turning on a younger man by the forge that Ella hadn't noticed. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? DO YOU WANT TO SET THE ENTIRE SHOP ON FIRE? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?"_

_The hot tool that the man had dropped smouldered on the floor. The man stared down at it, his fists clenched, burning just as hotly._

"_It was…an…ACCIDENT!" he spat._

"_Like hell it was an accident! HOW CAN YOU BE SO CARELESS? YOU REALIZE YOU'RE WORKING WITH __**FIRE**__, DON'T YOU?"_

"_YOU THINK I DO THESE THINGS ON PURPOSE?"_

"_I'll talk to you later," Saibara growled. "I'm sorry about his behaviour, Ella. He's Gray, my anger-prone grandson, and also my apprentice that I'll have to knock some sense into before I croak." He turned to the simmering young man. "Now, I want you to meet Ella. She and her family are some of our best customers, so you better check yourself when she's around."_

"_I don't care. I'm out of here." The man took a few powerful strides towards the door, where Ella still stood, astonished. When she didn't move, he grabbed her by the arm and shoved her roughly out of the way._

"_GRAY! YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT AND APOLOGIZE TO THIS YOUNG LADY! GRAYYY! YOU HEAR ME, BOY?"_

_Ella rubbed her arm. "Don't worry," she said quietly. "I want to talk to him."_

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"Ella! Good morning," Carter called cheerfully. He dusted off his khaki pants and stood to greet her.

"Morning Carter, Flora," Ella smiled. "I brought you guys something." She shrugged her rugged rucksack off her shoulders and opened the top. A wriggly puppy squirmed out and leapt into her arms.

"River, stop that!" The puppy licked her face excitedly. "Here, Flora. You mentioned you liked animals, but didn't get to see them often—so I brought River to visit you!"

Flora melted. "Aaawwww! He's SO adorable! Can I hold him?"

"By all means!" Ella handed the squirming puppy to the enthralled archeologist. While she was distracted, the farmer took a pack of rice balls out of her backpack and sneakily handed them to Carter. "To tide you over on the rough dinners ahead," she whispered.

"Your timing is perfect. Flora was just going over the details of tonight's meal, and...well. You have my gratitude!"

Ella grinned. "So, you guys need any help today?"

"When don't we? Remember, you can keep all the earrings and necklaces and junk you find…"

_Hehehe. Yes. Junk…_the blonde thought wickedly, resisting the temptation to rub her hands together evilly. _The world's most lucrative garbage. _

Unbeknownst to the three wannabe archeologists, a lone figure in a beige jumpsuit had listened to the conversation from the entrance to the digsite—and he was getting very excited. Almost embarrassingly so, in fact.

"_Ella_?"

She whirled around abruptly, recognizing the man's voice. "_Gray_?"

"Hey! So, this is where you've been keeping yourself." He stood at the entrance of the mine, wielding a formidable-looking hammer and a wide grin.

"Gray!" She ran up and hugged him, dropping her own hammer in the dirt. "It's so nice to see a familiar face! What are _you_ doing here?"

He mussed her hair with a gloved hand. "Nothin', just pleasure mining. I asked Elli'n Trent last week if there were any mines around this area, and they told me there were. I just came by to check them out."

"Oh, well, I hope you like them…then you'll have to come back every week." She smirked evilly.

"Well, if you never move outta my way, I'll never know," he said, feigning anger. She stepped aside with a grin.

"Sooo-rry! But don't hoard the necklaces or earrings, even though I know you love them. I need them to live off of."

Gray rolled his eyes. "Really? I can't? You're so selfish. Are there toe rings for me at least?"

"Ehh..I guess you can have the fluoride ones."

Flora was staring fixedly at the young blacksmith with wide eyes. Gray's expression hardening, he pulled his hat down over his eyes.

"Um, okay. Let's…get to work." He shuffled towards the far end of the mine, Ella in tow.

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After the day's work was done, Gray treated the exhausted farmer to a drink at the Blue Bar.

"You're telling me you never had a drink back home?"

"Nope." She stared at the suspicious liquid in her goblet warily.

"And your dad, the wine-maker."

"Never had a drop," Ella maintained. She ran her finger over the sugar-coated lip of the glass. Griffin, polishing a goblet, raised an eyebrow.

Gray let it go. "So, you're seriously living here now?"

"Yeah…it's sort of hard to explain. I didn't tell anyone because I knew I'd have to explain then."

"Well, that's stupid. You just _disappeared. _We were all messed up for awhile, until we got your folks to give us some answers."

"Really? What'd they say?"

Gray leaned forward on the countertop and glanced at her sidelong. "They said you were following your dreams." There was a hint of irony in his tone that Ella didn't fail to notice.

She smirked, not willing to divulge any more information. "I suppose so."

"Couldn't have waited for your mom to retire, eh?"

"She never will!" Ella said with a laugh. "She'll literally be there, lassoing cows around, when she's three hundred years old."

Gray took a swig of his drink. "Hmm. Probably."

"So, how's the old master?"

The apprentice rolled his eyes. "His fiery, ornery, stubborn usual self." He took another drink, aggressively. "He'll probably live for another five hundred years to spite me."

"Hey, now. Take it easy."

"Yeah, yeah. So you like it here?"

Ella shrugged. "Well, it's not home yet. But yeah, the people are friendly and maybe I'll even have a friend, someday."

"Sounds lonely."

"So? Didn't bother you at first, either."

"True dat."

"By the way…I think my mother's spying on me."

"Uhhh…no, I can vouch for her, she's been at Riverside the whole time, Ella."

The blonde shook her head. "No—okay, I think she's _sending _spies. You know Elli and the new doctor?"

"Oh, yeah?"

"They were at my door yesterday, asking me questions about how I was doing and everything. It makes sense that my mom wouldn't ask someone who knows me, but do you think I'm being paranoid?"

Gray tilted his head, considering. "Well, maybe. I don't think someone like Trent would care about your farm normally."

"Exactly." Ella sat back.

"Ella, you've been avoiding your drink…"

She made a face. "Nooo."

"Just try it!"

Picking it up gingerly, she looked at it with distaste.

"I bought it for you, it'd be rude if you didn't drink it."

Griffin leaned towards her on the counter, smiling kindly. "I _made _it for you, it'd be rude if you don't drink it."

"Alright, alright!" She lifted the glass to her lips. "Cheers."

She took a drink. The liquid burned down all the way down her throat and spread its sparking fingers out to her chest. The scent, burning her nostrils, made her big blue eyes water. She coughed and clutched her shirt, wrinkling her nose at Gray.

The blacksmith laughed at her as he took another glug. "Newbie."

"Well?" asked Griffin, his arms folded on the counter. "Whaddya think?"

Ella composed herself and smacked her lips. "Well, I don't think I'll ever be an alcoholic…"

Griffin's eyes twinkled. "And the taste? How'd you like it?"

Ella stared. "There was a flavour?"

The two men burst out in riotous guffaws. Ella grinned sheepishly and gave the rest of her drink to Gray.

"No offence, sir," she said to Griffin. "It's not the drink, it's the fact it _is _a drink."

"Eh, don't worry yourself. We'll turn ya. You'll join our side soon enough, missy."

She stood up. "Good luck with that. I'm tired, so I'm gonna head back to the farm…Thanks, Griffin. Nice seeing you, Gray. G'night."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"Doctor?"

Elli poked her head around the corner of Trent's room, where he sat leafing through a medical journal.

"Humm?"

"Tess is here to see you. Well—us. She's waiting."

"Right." He stood, slipping his lab coat on over his shirt. "Meet you down there."

Tess was sitting anxiously on a couch in the waiting room when Trent arrived. She stood up and made her way toward him, glancing at the other people waiting to be examined. (Just the usual culprits—Lillia, Jeff, and Ellen.)

"Won't be much longer, guys," Elli told them sweetly. She and Tess followed the doctor into his office.

Trent sat and leaned against his desk. "So, ma'am, about your daughter…"

Tess gripped her bag anxiously, sitting in the chair opposite Trent. "Is she doing okay? She was still alive? Did she look healthy?"

"She's doing just fine," Elli laughed. "Her farm's not in great shape, but she's working hard to improve it."  
"She looked very healthy," Trent agreed. "I don't think you have anything to be worried about."

The farmer was obviously relieved. "I can't thank you enough. You really lifted a weight off my shoulders! But, if you wouldn't mind…could you just keep…sort of, watching over her? Things on farms can change really quickly…and…I'm worried about how she'll handle herself. I know her friend Gray visited the valley today, but I know if I asked him about her, he'd butter it up so that she wouldn't look bad."

"She's truly doing very well under the circumstances," Trent told her.

"But of course, we won't mind looking after her a bit!" Elli said. "It sounds fun. And I like her."

Tess bit her lip. "But, please, be brutally honest with me, even if you don't think I'll like what you say. I _have to know._"

"We understand," Trent replied resignedly. He hadn't really anticipated monitoring the young girl the entire time, but it was obviously lessened her mother's stress considerably. And stress was a leading cause for bad health, you know.

"Okay," Tess said, beaming. "I'll see you later, then. Thanks again."

"Have a nice day," Trent called. He sat behind the desk and got out a folder. "Alright, Elli, if you could bring Lillia in, please?"

"Of course~"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

_**A/N: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read the next instalment! I *think* I'm finally done all the boring developments and am ready to soon take on the real story. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.**_

_**Please R&R if you have the time(:**_


	4. Vindication

_**A/N: Is it possible? Yes! Two chapters in one day! Okay, more or less, I guess it's technically 2am and tomorrow. But hey, don't rain on my parade. I hope you like this chapter c:**_

_**Disclaimer: No, I still don't own the Harvest Moon series. Property of Marvelous and Natsume and all that.**_

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

There was only one thing to do.

_It is time. The kissing-up begins now. _

Hmm…so what kinds of things would the nurse and the doctor like? Probably healthy stuff. Like fresh vegetables!

Ella regarded her farm. _Yeah, right, like I can afford that. And my luck, the vegetables would never be in season at the right time._

Kissing up? Ughhh. This was going to be so awkward and embarrassing.

Absent-mindedly, she wandered into her new barn and breathed in the new-barn smell. Plus cow. Maybe not quite the same as new-car smell.

Feeling a tugging on her overalls, the farmer glanced down to see her brown cow, Faye, chewing on the denim.

"Silly girl," Ella murmured, separating the jean material from the cow's grinding molars. "Silly to think I can afford to buy another pair, aren't you? No, you're going to have to settle for fodder. Guess you're hungry, huh?"

"**MOOOOOOO**" Faye replied delicately.

"Alright, alright!" Ella grabbed a bushel of fodder, hugging it to her body, and lugged it over to the feedbox. "Talking to a cow. I need to get some friends, don't you think?"

Faye looked at her for a long moment, and then stuffed her face into her food. Ella clapped out the brush and walked over to the cow's side. "Heeeyyyy!"

The cow continued munching, ignoring the girl's excitement as she danced around the barn.

"I can finally milk you! OOOHH I LOVE YOU FAYE! I'm gonna be rich!" Ella calmed down by hugging her cow with all her might, which Faye hardly noticed.

Skipping out happily, Ella hurried back to her house to get the milking gear, which she'd bought in an overzealous burst of optimism the day Faye arrived—as a calf. She sprinted back to the barn in high spirits.

"Okay," she panted, kneeling down by Faye. "Tak taught me how to do this, so don't worry." She looked in confusion at the tangle of nozzles. "Don't…worry…about a thing."

Faye wasn't worried. She was blissfully unaware of the scheme the girl was cooking up at her side. In fact, she was blissfully unaware of the girl in the first place.

"Okay…here goes nothing…"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Trent and Hardy were deep in some hardcore medical conversation that Elli had stopped following ten minutes ago. She sat with her head resting on one of her hands, elbow on the table, looking over her notes from last week in boredom. She was almost hoping for a medical emergency to break the tedium of the morning.

Suddenly, the door opened. All three heads looked up.

"Hi, guys," the intruder said shyly with a little smile.

"Hi, Ella~," Elli greeted happily.

"Oh, good morning, miss," Dr. Hardy replied, standing. "Come on in. Is there something we can help you with?"

"Oh…um…no, thank you," she answered, looking uncomfortable. "I actually…just brought something for you guys."

Hardy raised both eyebrows. "Did you now? Well, that's hardly necessary for a social call." He guided her over to the table.

Trent noticed with interest that she seemed to be favouring her left leg as she made her way over. "Something bothering you?"

The farmer's face flushed. "N-no, nothing. Here," she said hurriedly, placing her rucksack on the table and rooting around in it.

"You didn't need to get us anything, Ella," Elli insisted, peering over the blonde girl's shoulder into the bag.

"Here…this is for you. I was walking here and just thought it was pretty, and you might like it." Ella pulled out a fresh Pinkcat flower and offered it to the nurse.

"Oooh! That is pretty! I never knew these grew around here…all we look for are herbs. Thanks!"

"Andddddd…ta-da!" Ella proudly revealed two small bottles of milk. Grinning, she explained, "It's fresh milk, and I thought it didn't get healthier than that. I thought maybe you guys would like something like it. I divided one bottle into two, so there's one for both of you. And also it's smaller in case you don't like it." She bit her lip, and gave a bottle to Hardy and Trent.

"Ohh! Well, thank you kindly, missy." Hardy popped the lid off his bottle and downed it in a single go.

Trent looked at the bottle in his hand, and then glanced back up at the farmer. She sat heavily on the right side in her chair as she watched Hardy enjoy his drink, and then turned her blue eyes on him. He blinked, realizing he'd been staring.

"You…don't like milk?" she asked, sounding crushed. Trent turned his gaze back down on the bottle. He hadn't opened it yet.

"Oh…no, I'm sorry, I love milk," he answered. "I was just...I mean, did the cow kick you or something?"

Her face reddened again, and she wiggled in her seat. "Kind of. She more…fell on me, actually."

Trent raised his eyebrows. "And you said it was nothing? How much do those things weigh?" He started to stand.

"No no no! She tried to kick me, but she lost her footing and sort of fell. It wasn't that bad. It's just that it was my first time milking her. Please," she said, gripping the sides of the chair, "just enjoy the milk."

"Okaaay," he agreed slowly, "but don't keep it a secret if it gets worse, alright?"

"No sir." She shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

"Really, it was your first time milking? She didn't like it, huh?" Elli giggled.

Ella grinned, the tension lifting. "Not exactly. That, or she just doesn't like me. Which is more likely."

"Well, if the milk always tastes like this, then I doubt you have much to worry about," Hardy chuckled. He put his empty bottle on the table and sat back, settling his gaze on his protégé. "Well? Gonna drink it?"

"Oh…yes." Trent popped the lid off and took a sip of the milk.

"Sooooooo how's it going Ella?" Elli asked innocently.

"Very well…as you can see, my cow is grown, I'll probably splurge on a few more soon, after I hit the mines again."

"The mines?" Dr. Hardy asked. "What're you up to in the mines? Don't you have farming to do?"

"Well, yes, but I finish all my chores in the morning. Then the rest of the day is mine…literally."

"Ohhh!" Elli giggled. "'Mine'! That's cute."

Trent finished off his drink. "Thank you. This milk was pretty good."

The farmer covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. "Thank you! I was hoping you'd like it. Well, anyway, I'd better be going. 'Bye!" She waved to them and headed towards the door, limping slightly. Now that they knew she had an injury, there was no point in hiding it.

After she left, Hardy turned to his guests.

"I think it's about time we went herb hunting," he said, checking his watch. "The day is getting away from us."

Elli gathered up her things. "Yes, and you should tell us about yesterday's appointment with Romana!"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Admiring the silvery, flopping fish on the fishhook, Ella smiled with satisfaction. Now, just a little bit of foraging to end the day. She added the fish to the four others waiting in her basket and hoped they wouldn't get sticky and gross by the time she was done.

"Hey, cutie," Rock said behind her. She jolted forward in surprise and nearly fell into the Goddess Pond.

"Rock! I swear, the next time you sneak up behind me, I will feed you to my cow."

"I didn't know she was a cannibal, eh?" He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She brushed herself off and snapped her hand away.

"Are you calling yourself a cow, Rock?" she asked impishly.

"Are you calling me a cow, Ellalalala?"

The farmer rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna touch that one. If you'll excuse me, I have some foraging to do."  
"Aaaw, what's the rush?" the world-class lounger asked, reclining on the grass.

"Well, I don't exactly want to starve to death. Most normal people have to eat regularly, you know."

"Eat your cow," Rock laughed. Ella dropped a fish on his face and walked into the overgrown field by the pond as he roared.

She knelt down to the herbs and pulled her gloves on. The more valuable plants had vicious thorns, she'd learned, and the red ones stung like no one's business. However, they apparently sold somewhere. Luckily they grew like weeds.

_Okay, so I'm down to shipping just six milk per week. Maybe it'll take a little bit longer before I'm rich._

Ella always zoned out while foraging.

She must have been there for an hour or more. She could feel the sun's heat acutely on her sweaty, aching back, and realized the sun had moved across the sky.

Yawning, she let her exhaustion take over and curled up in the field. Instantly, her back felt better and the warmth became pleasant. She could distantly hear rustling in the field, and became aware of the activity around her.

Bees buzzed busily around flower blossoms; caterpillars inched up grass stems and munched on the stalks. A single white butterfly flitted by her face and alighted gracefully on a flower. Someone crunched through the grass and plucked a bloom that two caterpillars were resting on.

Frowning, Ella turned her head to see Rock. He wiggled his fingers at her in some kind of wave, and pranced back to the pond to attempt to romance Lumina. She snorted to herself and turned back.

She watched the sun travel across the sky until it was hidden by trees. Darkness fell, and Ella didn't move. Probably she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before, and she couldn't will herself to get up. It was too peaceful.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, Hardy stared at her still form with narrowed eyes.

"Is she still there? I can barely see out of these old eyes of mine."

Elli squinted into the dusk. "Yeah, I think she's still there. Really, though, Doctor, she didn't pass out. She just lied down."

They stood in silence, puzzled. Trent walked up to them and followed their gaze.

"Who's that? Ella?"

"Yeah. She just settled down there some five hours ago, and hasn't moved since."

All three of them stood together and stared into the darkness, trying to make out her silhouette.

"Do you think she's going to move?" Elli asked.

"That's none of our business," Hardy replied. "She didn't faint, so she's healthy."

"What if she wore herself out?" the nurse pressed on. Hardy shrugged.

"Fine," he said. "Why don't we give her another half hour and then come back and check up on her?"

"I guess that's what we should do," Elli said hesitantly. Slowly, the trio turned and headed down the path to the town.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Trent had been the lucky one elected to head back to the pond to check up on the farmer. Grudgingly, he'd pulled his jacket on and trudged slowly back to the area. It was quite dark now and Elli had insisted that he bring along a flashlight. It dangled uselessly from its strap in his hand.

His head was bent, braced against the cool wind that blew on the spring night. As he watched the path go by under his feet, he noticed that the road began to take on a turquoise-azure tone. By the time he arrived at the end of the path by the river, the entire area was bathed in a soft blue light.

Trent looked up. This felt eerie. He scanned the area and with considerably shock, found the source of the illumination.

It seemed to be a tall, beautiful woman. She wore a flowing azure gown, and even her hair and eyes appeared to be of the shade. She shed the aura over the entire field as she knelt down, reaching out to a figure on the ground.

The doctor's mouth fell open and he stared in disbelief at the scene unfolding before him. The woman lifted Ella up off the field and put her on her feet. The farmer, yawning, bowed before her. She didn't seem shocked in any way.

The doctor was frozen in place, unable to make heads or tails of the situation.

The glowing woman said something to Ella, who shifted uncomfortably at the speech. Trent took a hesitant step forward, and the woman's head snapped up sharply. Her green-blue eyes bored into him, prompting the doctor to fall back, staring unabashedly.

"Well, it seems as though we have a guest," she remarked the Ella, her silky voice now projecting out to reach him.

The farmer turned almost reluctantly to regard him. As soon as she recognized who it was, her face went beet-red and she buried it in her hands.

"E-Evening, Doctor…"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

_**A/N: So, what do you think of these snazzy new time-lapse symbols, eh? I'm liking them—especially for the fact that they actually stick around loyally after the draft is published.**_

_**Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope you liked reading it, and please stay tuned, 'cos that's not all, folks.**_

_**As always, please feel free to R&R if you have the time C:**_


	5. Imagination

**A/N: Moar? Yes, moar. I've had reverse writer's block and now plot is just gushing out. :) **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own the Harvest Moon series. Shocking, I know. I also don't own Google.**

**(You'll see what I mean :3)**

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

He wrinkled his brow and flung an arm over his face as the warm morning sunlight filtered in through the windows. Slowly, he became aware of a dull ache in his right shin and ankle. It throbbed unobtrusively but persistently.

Groaning, he sat up with his arm still protecting his tender morning eyesight, and reached down to feel his foot. A firm, small hand took his shoulder and pressed him gently back down.

"A bit too early for that, mister," Elli's voice said.

Huh…? Trent dropped his arm and squinted directly ahead, trying to make out where he was. As his vision focused, he recognized the six neatly folded, blue-blanketed beds of the Inner Inn's men's dorm.

The doctor felt a shot of panic and bolted upright again. "Whaaaat? We're still in Forget-Me-Not?" he croaked, ripping the sheets off. He was halfway out of the bed when Elli pinned him down again, armed with a teapot.

"Yes," she told him lightly, "and we're sticking around for another day, thanks to someone's clumsiness."

Trent shook his head. "No—we have to get back to Mineral Town. We're the only medical professionals in the entire—"

"The entire town of some two dozen people, if that? Look, we're important, yes, but not so crucial that you can't take another rest day. Relax, okay?"

Trent blinked and sat back against the headrest. What was going on here? Clumsiness…? Rest…? Had he hurt himself? He couldn't…remember. Where had he been the night before? He almost caught himself asking Elli what happened last night, but…

He shook his head. No. There was something there, buried in the back of his mind, teasing him, like fragments of a dream. He furrowed his brow and cast his eyes about in frustration, stopping cold when he caught sight of a copy of The Harvest Goddess's Book of Song.

His memories of the previous night's events crashed down on him like a waterfall, unorganized but strong. Ella! The goddess! The weird blue light! Ella was in cahoots with the goddess, and they were doing something when he went back to check on her, and…he hadn't hurt himself! He remembered _everything_ now.

"This is unbelievable!" Trent exclaimed to his wide-eyed nurse. "The goddess—did you see her too? What happened? What's going on?"

Elli slowly put down the tea she'd been steeping, never taking her concerned eyes off him. "Trent, what are you talking about?" she asked gently.

"The goddess! The spring was blue, and Ella was standing there talking to her—"

"Have some tea," Elli interrupted, settling the breakfast tray on his lap. "It'll help you relax."

The doctor stared at her. "Relax? Are you telling me you didn't see anything?"

"_When_?"

"I don't know, whenever!" Trent realized he wasn't making any sense to the nurse. He had to hear her story from her perspective. Massaging his temples, he asked demurely, "Then, what happened…?"

Elli crossed her arms, rigid with anger. "When _you _didn't return after half an hour, Dr. Hardy and I went to look for _you_. We made it to the path to the spring and saw Ella dragging _you _down the path, out like a light. Speaking of which, _you _never turned _your _stupid flashlight on! That's why I gave it to you, you know, so that you _wouldn't_ trip in the dark and nearly kill yourself!"

Gray chose that second to burst energetically in with a heavy load of ores. The nurse stopped short. After puzzling at the scene for a moment, he pointed at Elli and asked, "What's she doing here?"

"Apparently I got hurt," Trent replied shortly.

"Ah." He dumped his load and made his escape. Elli turned back to the doctor, glaring.

"Apparently! If you'd just turned on your flashlight!" she fumed. "It still even has the little paper tab in the switch, so I know you never even tried to use it!"

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Trent cut in, rubbing his eyes. He tried in vain to put all the stories together.

Elli sat down angrily in the chair by his bed and smoothed her skirts, trying to calm herself. "_Why_ didn't you turn on your flashlight?"

"I…didn't need it."

"How is it possible that you would ever not need your flashlight walking alone by yourself in the pitch-black _night?"_

"Alone _and_ by myself?" Trent repeated, and then shrunk from her scathing gaze. "It…I didn't need it because everything was bathed in this blue light. There was a woman—Look, here's what really happened: I walked up the path to the spring, everything's got this blue tinge to it, and when I get to the spring there's this goddess—or something—standing there, talking to Ella. She just—I don't know. But it happened," he finished weakly

Elli tapped her foot impatiently. "Really. Is that so? How do you explain the blackout and the injury, then?"

"I don't _know_, Elli."

"No? There's a logical explanation for everything, _Trent_," the nurse remarked curtly. Trent narrowed his eyes.

"I gave you the logical explanation," he snapped.

"I didn't think your logical explanations included princesses and goddesses, _Trent._"

He exhaled deeply and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't use your flashlight, Elli."

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I'm sorry. I was just worried, and it sounds like you were making excuses…"

Placing his untouched tray on the bedside table, the doctor pulled the blankets off again and sat up. "But look, I'm sure this happened. I'm certain. It doesn't feel like a dream. There's someone I have to talk to."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Ella sat back on her heels and smiled fondly as Faye munched up her food. Unbeknownst to the trusting cow, Ella had craftily spiked the fodder with Miracle Potion she'd purchased from Yodel Ranch awhile ago (along with two other cows—Nikah and Macy, as they became). The farmer was overflowing with little-girl excitement at the thought of the ranch's first live birth, and a little calf meandering around. She'd carefully washed her hands with copious amounts of soap after mixing in the Potion, though, a little wary of how the product worked. Not that she really wanted to know the details.

She'd spent the past few days splitting wood and crushing stones after realizing some sprites were released in that manner, but she needed a break. Another tip from the Network informed her that animal births on the ranch also helped release a sprite. So, she'd been mass-hatching chicks and selling them back to the put-upon Popuri once they were suitably matured.

But a calf sounded fun. And now that she had two other milk-giving cows, she had Faye to spare.

The cow was already getting pretty big. Ella rubbed Faye's ears affectionately and got to her feet, surveying her other livestock. She clipped ropes to their halters and led them outside to the pasture, making sure Faye stayed safely inside.

Oakley, her stallion, was already out grazing. He was actually sired by her mother's horse, Kingsley, and shared his aptitude for racing. Unfortunately, Ella didn't think there were any horse races in the valley. A large, moving silhouette caught her attention.

"Hey, Gotz!" she yelled to the bulky carpenter as he settled under the peach tree on his lunch break. He raised a hand in acknowledgment and turned his attention back to his sandwich. Ella bit her lip, feeling a bit isolated.

River bounded out of the field's untamed rocky wilderness and trotted around her feet, nearly tripping her. Sidestepping away, she put her hands on her hips and looked down at him intently. Alarmed, River stopped wagging his tail and sat down where he was.

"I'm going on a flower delivery mission," she told the puppy seriously. "Coming with?"

Yipping, he bounced around her and nibbled on her shoelaces. She stepped over him and headed toward the farm exit. Making a stop at her house, the farmer grabbed an armful of wildflowers and arranged them carefully in her rucksack, ensuring none of them were crushed. As she opened the door and stepped out of her house, she came face-to-face with a determined, rumpled-looking doctor, his hand raised in mid-knock.

They stared at each other in surprise for a moment.

"Oh, um, good morning," Ella murmured nervously, breaking the silence.

Trent lowered his arm, the resolve on his face slowly draining away. "Good morning."

River barked excitedly at the guest from behind Ella's legs. She hushed him, and then turned back to face the doctor. "Is there…something I can do for you…?"

He cleared his throat, now uncertain. "Excuse me…I thought…" Raising his eyes from the ground, he searched her face. Whatever he was looking for apparently wasn't there. "Uh…I…um…guess it's nothing, then. Sorry to bother you. Take care."

He turned stiffly and walked off towards the town. Ella chewed her fingernails anxiously, watching his retreating figure. As soon as he was out of sight, she exhaled deeply in relief and slumped against the door frame, letting her built-up tension go.

Great Goddess, he remembered last night—the Goddess hadn't completely erased his memories. Some help _that _was! Thankfully she was able to hold her composure, but if he'd prodded any more, she may have given it all away in her expression. She wasn't that great an actress.

And she wasn't that great a liar. Ella didn't like pretending that Trent had tripped in the field and KO'd himself by hitting his head on a boulder…it would have been much easier if the Goddess had just erased the experience completely, but ohhh no…

Well, there was no clean way around it, really. She adjusted her rucksack on her shoulders and went forth into the world to make some friends. Bribed friends, but friends just the same…

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"Grayyy!" Ella called to her friend, flashing him the peace sign. He raised his hand nonchalantly in return, and turned back to his conversation with Muffy outside the Blue Bar. Ella doubted it was a real conversation; a lot more flirting was probably taking place. She decided to avoid them. Muffy wasn't really a huge fan of flowers anyway.

The farmer distributed prized petals to Gustafa, Celia, Kate (whom Ella could barely tolerate) and Lumina (who followed her around for the rest of the day). Ella, surprised to see Elli still hanging around, awarded the nurse another posy. Then, Ella ambushed the archaeologists in their dig site—nobody was safe! Flora didn't really like flowers, despite her name, but she was really warming up to the farmer. The fact that Ella had an adorable puppy probably helped.

Carter received more rations. "You know," he told her as he sneakily munched on them. "these are good for snacks too, so that I even have to eat less of her food. They are manna from heaven, I tell you."

The blonde tilted her head and looked at him appraisingly, smiling. "You hate her cooking, so why don't _you _just cook?"

He gave her the deer-in-the-headlights look. "Me? Cook?"

Ella laughed. "Yes, you. Cook."

Carter ran his hand through his curly hair, considering. "Well, I made instant noodles once," he confessed.

"That's a start." Ella leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. "You wanna learn a really easy, delicious recipe?"

He leaned in. "Yes," he whispered.

Ella sat back. "Bread and a toaster. Good for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And snacks, if, Goddess forbid, you run out of rice balls. Well," she said, louder, "I'll be off now. 'Bye, guys!"

"Toodles, Ella!" Flora called.

"Ta-ta for now, Floramunde!" The farmer disappeared into the daylight, River at her heels.

Flora turned to Carter. "Floramunde? What in the world does she mean?"

He shrugged. "Google it."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

The sun was setting. Ella sat back in her barn, stroking Faye as she tossed and turned restlessly. The cow must have been closer to giving birth than she'd realized…either that, or it was just an obnoxious calf.

Ella had never helped with a calfing before. Her mother and father were usually able to do it by themselves. Worst case scenario—and it only happened once in her lifetime—her mother dashed off on horseback to get Barley, an incredibly experienced nearby rancher, to assist them. And now, she was going to be attempting her first one, by herself…

Her stomach turned nervously. Maybe…this wasn't such a good idea. Faye's discomfort wasn't exactly doing wonders for Ella's self-confidence, and she suddenly had a very strong urge to seek help.

"Stupid," the farmer murmured to herself as she stood, "that's called your _conscience_." Sleepily, she settled Macy and Nikah into the barn and dragged herself out, securing the door behind her.

Peeking into her coop, she smiled as she watched her hens—Aza and Hana—sleep, curled into themselves. The two currently growing chicks, cleverly named 4 and 5, fluffed their downy feathers and snuggled together. She was numbering the chicks to be sold, out of curiosity wondering how many births/hatchings the sprite required.

As she stood at the crossroad connecting her farm to the city, Ella wondered who she should grovel before to help her out. Vesta, Marlin and Celia would be no help; they only handled crops. There were no vets in the area, so a "people doctor" was her next best bet. So, she shuffled over to Dr. Hardy's home, thanking her lucky stars it was so close.

Ella knocked on the door a few times and yawned into her hands. When he didn't answer, she closed her eyes and leaned against the door. _He can't be too far away_.

She was bone tired. She let herself slide down to the ground until she sat curled up on his doorstep. Trying to check her watch, she found she lacked the willpower to lift her arm. It didn't take long before she was asleep.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

A beautiful harvest moon hung in the sky as Dr. Hardy, Elli, and Dr. Trent walked briskly down the slope in front of Romana's villa. It was nearly two in the morning.

Elli yawned delicately into her sleeve, prompting the doctors to follow suit. "I'm so glad we were in town when Ms. Romana fell," she remarked sleepily.

"Guess it's a good thing I twisted my ankle, then, isn't it," Trent replied halfheartedly.

Elli smiled groggily, rubbing her eyes. "You sound so ladylike when you talk about twisting your ankle."

They reached the base of the hill and continued on in silence. Hardy shuffled along more slowly, obviously fatigued. Elli fell back and took his arm, and Trent stuck his hands in his pockets self-consciously.

"You going to be okay, Doctor? I know Romana gave you quite a scare," Elli said to Hardy impishly. He shrugged her mock concern off and detached himself from her when they arrived at his door.

"Well, see you next week," Trent said. He and Elli turned and started heading back to the Inn.

"Oh!" Hardy said from behind them. Trent and Elli stopped, reluctant to turn back. Their comfy Inn beds called to them.

Hardy knelt down to examine his dozing guest. "Well, hello there, Miss Kelley."

"What is it?" Trent asked curiously. The older doctor motioned them forward.

"Oh, that's weird!" Elli giggled as they towered over the farmer, puzzled.

Dr. Hardy extended a hand and shook her shoulder firmly. Her head rolled to her chest and she inhaled sharply. Stretching out her legs, she raised her eyes to look at them.

"Hiiii," Elli said cheerfully.

Ella started forward. Even in the dark, they could tell her face was reddening. "I'm s-sorry," she stammered.

Hardy took her elbow and helped her to her feet. "Don't be," he replied. "What brings you here in this morn's wee hour?"

She rubbed her eyes. "Actually…I came here at about seven o'clock…"

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to receive you. It's a bit late," he continued, "but can I still help you now?"

The farmer nodded, groggy. "It's my cow," she blurted.

Hardy squinted at her. "Eh? Your cow?"

"Oh…no. Well, yes." Ella yawned widely. "Sorry. What I mean is, I think she may have a premature birth soon, and I was hoping to enlist your help when the time comes. I know you're not a vet," she rambled, "but it would still help me out a lot. If you can't, I mean, that's fine…"

Hardy shuffled to the door and unlocked it. "I'd be glad to," he replied. "Just come runnin' out of your farm, and I'll do what I can."

Ella nodded. Zombie-like, she thanked him walked away from the door and into Elli. After mumbling an apology, she began her teetery trip home. She didn't know it yet, but she was doomed to sleep in until 9am the next morning.

**A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter. And the chapters before it. And… just, thanks! Hope you enjoyed it.**

**Also, does anybody else find it bizarre that Muffy loveslovesloves flowers in AWL, but is only 'meh' on them in DS and DSC? **

**Anyway, I'm rambling. Please don't be shy, as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts/comments/criticisms. **

**^ That's a subtle way of saying REVIEW! **


	6. A Fine Balance

**A/N: Sooo…This one's a bit more serious. I doubt this chapter will bother anyone greatly, but just in case: the squeamish have been warned =3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harvest Moon series~**

**And with that, I hope you enjoy the chapter C:**

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Her hammer strapped to her back and her rucksack emptied, Ella followed Gray closely up towards the dig site.

"…some gold in there, too," the blacksmith was saying. "Near the bottom, there's some kind of possessed chick, though. Kind of creeps me out."

"Just give it a solid whack with your hammer," the farmer told him mildly. "It leaves you alone after that."

Her friend stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, his mouth hanging open. "_What_? Did you just tell me to whack a baby chick with my hammer?"

"Um, yes," Ella replied. "It's…possessed, like you said."

He stared at her.

"What?" she demanded defensively. "It always comes back anyway. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, but it's _not _a normal chick."

"Errrr, alright then," Gray muttered. He proceeded up the path, and the two ducked through the cave-like entrance.

"Hi, guys!" Ella called cheerily. Her mood quickly changed when she became aware of the argument they had just interrupted.

Flora stood in front of Carter in an aggressive stance, gripping a frying pan. She looked like she was about to hit the professor with it.

Carter was obviously relieved. "Oh, Ella, Gray," he sighed. "You two couldn't have picked a better time."

"Oh, what, is this your excuse now?" Flora asked irritably. The archaeologist waved her concerns aside tiredly.

Gray raised his eyebrows. "Don't let us interrupt you," he said, and started walking towards the mine entrance. Ella was slow to follow. She watched the professor's eyes light up, and flinched as he practically threw himself at her.

"Ella!" he exclaimed, loudly. "Buddy! You're finally here. Flora's a little put out about it, but I was thinking today was the perfect day to take you up on that lunch offer."

The farmer blinked, half-opening her mouth. Carter waited eagerly to see if she understood.

"…Uh…." she replied. What was he _talking _about? Flora looked at him suspiciously, her eyes narrowed.

"You knoooow?" he prodded, his teeth clenched. "We were talking about it before…? That sometime we should go out for lunch….? To let off some steam…?"

Ella glanced from his imploring eyes to Flora's frying pan and put it together.

"Ooh," she said slowly. "That's…right…"

Carter's face broke into a radiant smile. "Excellent. Allow me to get my jacket."

"Waaaait," she cried, grabbing his arm. "I came here…I mean, I can't just ditch Gray…"

"Ah," Carter said. "A previous engagement. Of course. I'm perfectly willing to wait until you two are done for the day."

Flora's suspicion seemed to have lifted. She scratched at something on the frying pan and asked, "Can I interest you in some lunch until you two are ready?"

"No," Carter answered firmly. "No, you most certainly cannot. I wouldn't want to ruin my appetite." He looked at her hurt face and quickly added, "…for dinner."

"Ohkay," she said, smacking her hand on the pan. "I'll just go whip up some PB&J with this baby."

The company watched her go, and then Gray asked, "_Why _does she need a frying pan for peanut butter and jelly?"

The professor turned his face skyward, eyes closed. "The Goddess only knows."

"Now you see why I let up and went along with his little dinner-date scheme," Ella said to Gray.

"Oh, yeah. And she _bought _it?" He grinned. "Anyway, come on, we'd better get mining or you'll be late for dinner."

Ella rolled her eyes and followed Gray into the mine. As they disappeared inside, she called over her shoulder, "It might be awhile, Carter! Might wanna snack on some of Flora's food so you don't waste away!"

"I'd waste away faster on that stuff," Carter retorted indignantly. Ella's evil giggles echoed eerily in the cave.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

There just wasn't enough time in a day! Ella and Gray had come out of the mine, exhausted but happy with their valuable hauls, and Carter had given her twenty minutes to get ready. She'd bolted to the hot springs and soaked her head, barely having enough time to pull on a fresh shirt and jeans before racing back to the Bar.

There wasn't anything special about the dinner. Carter fell over himself thanking her for rescuing him, and then amused himself well enough after he had a few drinks. Ella was the stick-in-the-mud who refused to have anything to drink, much to the enjoyment of the rest of the crowd. Lumina also took nothing, and seemed only to be there to flirt with Rock and Gray, who seemed especially moody after a few drinks.

Rock was trying to play the field, and failing. Muffy and Ella were downright annoyed and tired of him, while Lumina still revelled in the attention he gave her. The farmer made a mental note to have a talk with the naïve girl. Rock reminded her of her friend Kai, to a point: mostly harmless flirts, but heartbreakers if you let them be. Although, it was hard for her to imagine anyone suffering a broken heart over _Rock_…

It was nearly midnight when Ella finally got away; very late for her to be out and about. Before going to sleep, she hurried her hens and chicks into their coop (which she should have done before going to dinner, but alas…) and checked on her cows.

Macy and Nikah slept soundly, their heads resting on their front legs. Occasionally an ear or tail would twitch. Faye, on the far side of the barn, was curled up restlessly. As Ella looked on, she kicked her legs out and snorted in slight pain.

The farmer felt panic welling up in her. She jogged carefully over to the cow and rested her hand on her stomach.

Faye snorted again, but more in greeting. She seemed to relax. Ella couldn't feel any squirming, and the cow was definitely not in labour. False alarm—just general discomfort. Pregnancy looked like buckets o' laughs.

Ella grabbed some cloths and soaked them in warm water from the hose. She wiped Faye down before fastening a cover over her. She babied her livestock more than her mother did, but she was a first-time mother-cow-owner—she had a right to be nervous!

Locking the door behind her, she gazed up at the moon. It seemed so serene and peaceful on the perfectly clear, relatively warm night. Ella realized with a little thrill that summer was coming.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

It was the last official day of Spring, but it was already uncomfortably hot. The perfect temperature…for Harvest Day.

Ella thought she'd beat the system once as a little girl by slathering her entire body in sunscreen and then running outside to harvest in a bathing suit.

But no, the system had beaten her. In no time at all she was completely marked with thorns and snags of vicious crops, and seemed to be scratched and bleeding from every square inch of skin. Her father had laughed at her and thrown _Fall _clothing at her—splash pants and a hoodie. Unfortunately, that was the only way to do it.

She stood in front of her newly purchased mirror and regarded herself in her battle armour. Jeans? Check. Splash pants over top? Check. Hooded sweater? Check. Wide-brimmed hat? Checkity-check check.

She pulled her hiking boots on and laced them up tightly. Her black cat, Dusk, and River came padding inside, panting.

"You're telling _me_," she muttered, pouring them bowls of cool water. "Oh! Gloves."

By the time she was ready for the Big Harvest, the noonday sun sat directly above her in the sky, deep-frying her in her heavy clothing. She trudged slowly into the field to begin her work.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

It didn't make _sense_.

He'd searched the Internet, books, sites—everything short of asking people. Of course, people sometimes had dreams so realistic that they often confused them for reality, but it had never happened to him. Besides, it still didn't have that dreamy quality…it felt like a memory. It felt too realistic to really question, but after the short confrontation with Ella, it was only logical to assume that it had to be a dream.

Trent closed his laptop and massaged his temples. It was about noon, and he was still in the Inn. He'd told Elli that he had a cold. He didn't want her to know about the nagging doubt that still hung in his mind, and the research quest that ensued.

Who was this Harvest Goddess? Did she really exist? If she did, why didn't she do more, or show herself, or earn parcels of followers by performing magical feats? If she existed, and he'd seen her, would she meddle in his memories? If so, why?

There were too many questions and not enough hard information. The person to ask was probably his friend Pastor Carter, but after so many of their faith-vs.-science conversations, Trent felt too sheepish to go up to him and ask him about the Goddess. He'd stayed mum on the subject since last Friday when they returned.

He _hated _doubting himself. He had been so sure that he'd really seen something…Ella would have been the only one to confirm the event, but she had been completely oblivious. Unless the Goddess, or whatever she was, had scrambled the farmer's memories too…

Well, he'd wasted enough time. The doctor dumped a little bit of cold medicine down the sink so Elli would buy his story, pulled on his coat, and headed outside.

It was a beautiful day. Trent stopped outside the Inn and turned his face to the sky, just letting the summerlike heat wash over him. The sun was in the middle of the sky, at its hottest of the day. He walked briskly towards the spring area where he knew Elli and Hardy would be picking the finest herbs.

Sure enough, they were there in the field. Hardy was on his knees feeling the stems for sturdiness, and Elli had pinned up the hem of her skirt as she bent over the plants in the heat. Her sleeves had also been rolled back up to her shoulders, like two giant frilly shoulder-pads.

"Trent!" she called, waving to him. "You're feeling better now?"

"Yes," he called back. "I thought I should get some fresh air." The nurse smiled back cheerfully and then continued to pick herbs.

He knelt down in the grass to examine an herb. As he felt its stem, he startled away a resting butterfly—an oddly iridescent, turquoise-aqua-coloured specimen. It flitted around his hair, not seeming alarmed. Trent held very still.

Suddenly, there was a commotion near the river. As they looked on in surprise, Ella came racing down the path toward them, shouting for Dr. Hardy. As she reached him, he stood up slowly and motioned for Elli and Trent to come to him.

"Miss Kelley," he was saying to Ella as they arrived, "I'm afraid I'm not feeling at the top of my game today in this heat. But, I can offer you Trent and Elli."

The farmer looked at the two with panic-stricken eyes. Sweating heavily in the many layers she wore, she pleaded, "My cow is delivering prematurely, and it's not going well, I really need some help! Is there any way someone could come? _Please?_"

Trent jumped into action. "Of course. Come on, the faster we get there the better."

Ella ran out of the spring, the doctor and Elli hot on her trail. As they got closer to the barn, the farmer began tearing off layers of clothing and throwing them on the field.

"Here," she panted, opening the barn door farther. She led them over to a marble-coloured cow swathed in frothy sweat, writhing in pain.

"Ohhh," Elli murmured, falling back. Trent came forward and knelt beside the agonized animal.

"How early is she?" he asked, feeling her stomach.

"Three or four weeks," Ella answered fretfully.

"Hold her head."

The farmer came over and sat down on her knees. She took the cow's head in her lap, stroking it comfortingly.

"Elliiiiiii," Trent called over his shoulder. The nurse hung back tentatively, gripping her dress anxiously.

The entire cow's body suddenly flexed as she strained, pushing.

"Elli!" the doctor yelled. "Wet a washcloth!"

Ella's heartbeat was reaching a fever pitch. As her breathing also quickened, Trent glanced up in mild alarm.

"No hyperventilating," he said. "Wait till after the calf is born and we have some extra hands."

She smiled slightly and rubbed Faye's forehead. "You're doing great," she whispered.

Elli came forward with a bucket of water and a pile of cloths and set her load down beside Ella. The farmer wasted no time in soaking a few and wiping the cow's sweaty face and neck down.

"Elli," Trent said again, "come look at this."

Faye strained again. "Good girl," Ella murmured reassuringly.

The nurse ducked down near Trent. The two whispered urgently. Ella, trying to relieve her new tension, squeezed some water from a fresh cloth into Faye's mouth.

Elli backed off and knelt down in the straw, her head down. "Ughhnn…"

"What's wrong?" Ella asked worriedly.

Elli mumbled something.

"What?" The farmer was panicking now.

"The calf is coming backwards," Trent translated tonelessly.

Ella's heart thudded painfully. She rested Faye gently on the straw and scrambled over to Trent.

There was blood and fluid everywhere, soaking the bedding. Noticing a tiny hoof poking out, Ella's breath caught in her throat. Elli moaned and started crawling away.

Trent shook his head. "Help me pull it out." He rolled his sleeves up and grabbed the hoof.

Ella's mouth fell open, but she knew it was the only way. Poor Faye was at an impasse, and the calf's life was being compromised.

Slowly, they hauled the calf out hoof by hoof. It was a revolting, sticky, messy, foul-smelling process, but it was the only way. Just when the majority of the calf was born and Ella thought the end was near, Trent swore. He called for Elli to grab a tool from his medical bag.

Ella looked at the calf's head with weary eyes. The umbilical cord, its link to its mother, was wrapped around its neck firmly, cutting off its circulation and windpipe.

The doctor roared for Elli, and they both whirled around to find her passed out in the straw. Ella half-ran and half-crawled to get the little leather bag, then scrambled back.

Time was not in their favour.

As she looked on with a sinking heart, Trent hastily severed the tie. She wiped the bluish, cold calf down and wrapped it in a towel, tears streaking down her cheeks.

Its milky, colourless eyes gazed unseeingly from a pasty white face. Faye kicked her hooves and stood up, snorting, searching in vain for the calf's scent.

Trent sat back on his heels with a sigh, running his sweaty hands through his hair. Ella stared down at the calf's face. Her vision blurred with tears.

The doctor glanced over at her, realizing she had to be taken away from the calf. He shuffled over to her on his knees and gently peeled her arms off the wrapped bundle.

"N-no!" she cried out after a moment, reaching for the calf. Trent blocked her with his body.

"Get some rest," he said quietly. "I'll take care of him."

Ella sat listlessly where she was, staring into space. Sighing, Trent covered the newborn's body with the towel and pulled her to her feet.

He led the zombie farmer across the field where partly-harvested crops lay scattered and brought her to her house. The door was unlocked.

She was standing motionlessly in the middle of the floor when Trent left.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

It was still a beautiful day. Elli and Trent sat in the Inner Inn's kitchen, trying to convince each other to eat some dinner. Neither of them mentioned that afternoon until Ruby came in, chiding them for letting their food get cold.

Elli stirred her soup vacantly. "It died, didn't it?" she asked, after a few moments of silence.

Trent poked his potatoes with a fork. "Yes."

Ruby bustled in again with a basket of fresh vegetables, not giving them much time to mourn. "Looky here," she said cheerfully. "It's Harvest Day on Silver Ranch, and I got first pick!" She looked down at their uneaten meals. "What's wrong now? You don't like my cooking?"

They both protested passionately. "It's been a harrowing day," Trent explained, trying to make his meal look un-mussed.

"Ohh," Ruby said knowledgeably, sitting down across the table from them. "Tell me all about it."

Elli ducked her head down self-consciously. "I'm a bad nurse," she confided. "My first real birth, and I fainted."

"Yeah?" Trent said, turning to her. "I _lost _my first birth patient."

"It was my fault!" Elli insisted.

Ruby's mouth fell open. "Someone died?"

"No." Elli shook her head. "Well, not an actual person."

"Ella's cow gave birth prematurely, and we lost the calf," Trent told Ruby resignedly.

"Ohh." Ruby folded her hands. "Well. That's quite sad. How is little Ella doing?"

Elli blinked. "I don't know, I haven't seen her…Trent?"

Staring down at his food, Trent's toes curled guiltily. He should have checked on her hours ago. "She was in shock, last I saw her."

"Wellll, I think you should keep an eye on her, poor sweet thing," Ruby advised, standing. "But ya know, life's a fine balance. These things are sad, but they have to happen. Don't take it out on yourselves, and try to get some peace of mind."

The doctor forced himself to eat a forkful of beans, ignoring the cut of beef on his plate. "I'll go now."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

**A/N: So, hope you all got through that one alright. Originally, the first part of chapter 8 was going to be in this chapter as well, so that's why its ending is a bit abrupt.**

**I'm sorry to any Rock fans out there ^^;. He's always struck me as an arrogant skirt-chaser, so that's probably how I'll always present him. :D**

**As always, all critiques/comments/reviews are very welcome!**


	7. Great Goddess!

**A/N: Alright, thanks for making it this far (: I apologize in advance if it's confusing or messy at all…I reread and edited it a few times, but it's now officially almost 5:30 a.m., so you might have to forgive me for some errors…please and thank you xD **

**In case some of you are confused: Tess is MFoMT's "Claire" character, renamed; Ella is DSC's "Claire" character, renamed.**

**Disclaimer: You've heard this before, but no, I don't own Harvest Moon. Not now. :D...**

**And so, without further ado…Chapitre Huit! **

˙·_٠__•● _Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•_٠_·˙

_At six, she was too young to understand._

_Tess dried her hands on her towel and turned to greet her daughter, who'd just exploded in through the door. Her stillborn words caught in her throat as she took in the little girl's tear-streaked face. Instinctively, she rushed over and hugged her gently, trying to coax out the problem. _

_Wordlessly, Ella led her to the woodshed, and then took a sharp turn and ducked behind it. Tess stood back as she put together what had happened._

_Just behind the shed was a carefully, lovingly made replacement birds' nest. It was built of drink straws and hay, and padded down with some of the old rags Tess used for cleaning. Beside it stood Wolf's water dish and a small pile of chicken feed. _

_The farmer let out a little gasp as she saw the limp, motionless baby bird inside. New tears erupted from her daughter, who turned and buried her face in her mother's shirt. Tess rubbed her back comfortingly._

"_Honey, I know you tried to keep the bird alive, but once it fell from its nest, I mean, it's very rare that they survive."_

"_But I did everythinggggg!" Ella howled. _

"_Yes," Tess murmured, hugging her, "but you're not his mama. You couldn't keep him warm and dry all the time. And I'm afraid he can't eat this food yet, sweetheart." _

_The little girl still sobbed into her shirt in her first heartbreak as a light bulb went off above Tess's head. She scooped her daughter up in one arm and headed back to the house._

_Gently, she placed the sobbing child in her chair and began to dig through the closet. Finding her target, she lifted up a medium-sized cardboard box and walked back to her daughter. She placed on the table in front of her._

"_Go ahead—open it," she prompted, when the little girl looked up at her doubtfully. _

_Ella tore open the top of the box and smiled happily when she pulled out a dark brown, heavily plushed teddy bear. It boasted a giant golden ribbon around its neck. She wiped her eyes on her sleeves and hugged the bear. _

_Tess smiled at her daughter. "It was going to be a birthday present, but I think now is a better time. Take good care of him, 'kay?"_

_Clutching the bear, Ella looked up with wide blue eyes. Tess felt like she was staring at a mirror. "What about Blueberry?"_

_Her mother blinked. "The little bird?" Ella nodded, and Tess smiled sadly. "Don't worry, the Harvest Goddess is looking after him."_

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Ella lay sprawled on her bed, staring up at her ceiling as she clutched a plush bear. Idly, she toyed with the circular device the Harvest Sprites had given her on her first day of work—it contained a series of sprite channels that were supposed to be of use to her. She usually kept it clipped to her belt loops, where it looked like a pedometer.

Half-heartedly flicking the sprite weather channel on, she sat up slowly and fixed her eyes on her useless, blank-screened "people" TV. The thing took up a lot of valuable space, but it didn't show anything worth watching…unless you liked to stare at static for long hours on end. Stupid Van.

As she tried to roll off her bed, she caught her foot in the blanket and landed on the hardwood floor with a healthy smack to her face. Normally, she would have been frustrated enough to slap the floor back and yell at it, but today she didn't have the energy. Not anymore. She pressed the teddy closer to her face and just lay there.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Someone was jiggling the doorknob. The sound made Ella slowly open her eyes and become alert after her exhaustion-induced stupor. She turned her head and rested her other cheek on the floor, wondering if she had a floorboard imprint on her face.

The door's creaky hinges complained as her guest figured out the tricky doorknob and stepped inside. The tall shadow cast from the light of her houselights paused, looking around.

"Miss Kelley?" a man's voice called uncertainly.

Ella groaned inwardly. It was Dr. Trent, or maybe Rick. Someone from Mineral Town she didn't see often. What day was it..?

Wednesday still. It seemed like ages had passed since the incident, but it was still only Wednesday…the same evening.

Hesitantly, the man knocked on the door again. "Hello?"

If it was Wednesday…then he had to be the doctor, again. Exhaling, Ella realized how much she really didn't want to see him. Or anyone.

She garbled something unrecognizable as English, and the doctor's shadow-head snapped over towards the bed. "Miss Kelley!"

He saw a pair of legs, fully clothed in work gear, caught in a tangle of blankets as the upper body lay sprawled about the floor. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and fell over her face.

Alarmed, Trent rushed over to her side and grabbed her arms, carefully hauling her legs off the bed and forcing her into a more comfortable position. "Are you okay?"

Ella brushed strands of blonde hair out of her eyes and averted her eyes, blushing a little at being caught acting so strangely. "Yeah. Sorry. Thanks."

Trent sat back. "It looked for all the world as though you had just suffered a heart attack."

Biting her lip, Ella focused her gaze on one of her muddy workboots. "Sorry. It's fine. I'm fine."

For a man who had dedicated his life to improving other people's health and well-being, he was extremely awkward socially and didn't know what to say to the farmer, now that he'd arrived. He wracked his brain for something to say until he noticed the pinkish imprint on her right cheek. "Were you lying there long?"

The farmer fiddled with the tiny sprite television, embarrassed. "Uhm…I guess I was...But, I'm okay."

"Really?" Trent asked doubtfully. She brought her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"Really." Her voice was toneless, and she shifted uncomfortably. Trent understood that she didn't want company. But, however much he hated to bring it up, he had to talk to her about the calf. Trent found himself resorting to medical lectures to fill in the silence.

"Typically, the body's reluctance to move or be productive in any way for exponential periods of time is a sign of the body giving itself up, possibly to grief."

The farmer stiffened, and tore her gaze from her boots to stare at the wall. Trent continued.

"It's only natural, Miss Kelley…these things take time to heal. It's not anyone's fault, definitely not yours. Life's a fine balance…" He found himself repeating Ruby's words. "…and sad as they are, they must happen. Don't beat yourself up."

The knuckles on the hands gripping her legs went white. Glancing at her face, Trent noted her expression had hardened with the effort of holding her emotions in. She didn't want to cry, especially not in front of a near-total stranger. Haltingly, he began to reach out to touch her arm, and decided to grab the bear lying beside her on the floor instead. She gratefully accepted it and buried her face in its well-loved plush coat.

Trent tried valiantly to hide his amusement at seeing a twenty-three (or so) year old woman cuddling a child's toy. He grinned until he noticed her shoulders shaking with silent sobbing.

"I..uh, I'm sorry…" he murmured, looking away. "I understand this is really tearing you up."

She sniffed, fighting to regain composure. "It's—just my first failure, and it was so awful…I should be stronger. I'm sorry you had to see this…"

"Uh…no, don't be, I'm sorry…" He cleared his throat, trying to regain some of his professionalism. So far the majority of their conversation had been apologizing—but he had one more apology to make: "Miss Kelley, I'm sorry I couldn't do anything for your calf."

Ella sighed deeply. "Please don't worry about it."

Reading the pained expression on her face, he finished, "Well, um, I just came to check on you. You should go outside and get some fresh air sometime tonight."

She pulled herself to her feet and stretched. "Yeah, you're right. I think I'll follow you out."

Trent also got to his feet and headed to the door, closely followed by the farmer. They stepped outside into the night air, and she pulled the door closed, jerking it slightly to the left at the door frame.

"You…have a charismatic door," Trent remarked. "It gave me some trouble coming in. You didn't hear me knock, by the way?"

Ella half-smiled wryly at the door. "Yeah, it has an outgoing personality, unfortunately. And no, I guess I didn't…I was kind of in a daze." Trent nodded in understanding, and began to stride slowly across the grass, inspecting her farm. Ella followed his gaze and noticed a patch of cabbages still planted firmly in the earth. "Oh…I should probably finish my work. Excuse me, Doctor."

The doctor watched with interest as she jogged over to the patch and pulled the healthy-looking vegetables from the earth, stuffing them in her basket. Slowed under the heavy load, she made her way towards the shipping bin.

It occurred to Trent that the polite thing to do would be to help her. He hurried over to her and offered a hand. Gratefully, she placed the far end of the basket in his arms and walked him backwards towards the bin.

"Thanks for helping—I can take that end though, if you want," Ella said shyly.

"No, it's fine. It looks like you've cleared this end of the field pretty well."

They continued on in silence until Ella warned him he was in danger of tripping over the bin. Slowly, they maneuvered the basket around until they were on either side of the shipping bin, facing in, and placed the basket in the bin.

Ella wiped her brow on her sleeve. "What a day!" she exhaled. Trent nodded in agreement, shaking out his arms. The cabbages were surprisingly heavy. Ella bit her lip and looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "I want to thank you for everything you've done today. You've been a great help. Even with…the calf." The doctor was about to reply when a sudden, blinding flash interrupted them.

He gasped in surprise and held his arms up to shield his eyes, squinting through the cracks between his fingers. He saw Ella flinch, shocked.

"I'm back?" a tiny voice asked.

Trent dropped his arms and stepped back in bewilderment.

"Oh!" That time the surprised, dismayed noise was definitely Ella's. Glancing down, he found the source of the voice: a small childlike being garbed fully in green. He danced delightedly around the farmer's feet.

"Ella! Thank you so much! I knew you could do it~" the elflike boy sang, hugging her shins.

She looked mortified, wrenching her eyes from the fairy to briefly meet Trent's calculating gaze. _Oh, Goddess._

"I'm Kamar! I promise to help you whenever I can!" the being continued in a blissful lilt, completely oblivious to her distress.

"O-o-okay, Kamar," Ella said weakly. "Glad I could help you…"

Kamar jumped up and down, ecstatic. "She says to keep up the good work! Well, I'm off to the Tree—come visit me soon!~"

Just as suddenly as he appeared, he poofed in a cloud of green sparkles. Ella slumped, defeated.

Trent's throat had gone dry. He swallowed. A heavy silence descended between them.

Ella rubbed her arm, her eyes aimed stubbornly at the ground.

Unable to stand the silence any longer, he demanded, "_What _just happened?"

The farmer struggled to come up with something—_anything_—to say to him. "It's—a long story," she finally stammered.

The doctor crossed his arms. "I'm listening."

Ella shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "There's…no chance that you could let this go, is there?"

"Cleopatra," Trent chuckled quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"Queen of denial. 'Da Nile'. But I don't want to change the subject."

Tiredly, Ella rubbed her eyes. "I…didn't think so."

Trent's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he stared beyond Ella into the night. "That night at the Goddess Pond…I didn't really trip in the dark, did I?"

The blonde forced herself to meet his eyes. "There's something you need to understand…come with me."

"Wha—?" She grabbed his sleeve.

"We're going on a field trip."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Lost in his thoughts, Trent failed to notice that Ella had stopped in front of him. He kept right on walking and plowed straight into her.

The petite farmer staggered forward but managed to keep her footing.

"Sorry, that was careless of me," Trent mumbled. Ella waved off his apology as she turned to face him.

"It's alright. So, um…do you believe in the Harvest Goddess?"

The doctor was taken aback by her question. Carefully, aware that she was supposedly on a holy mission, he answered, "I place my beliefs in things that are backed by science and solid proof. I have no evidence to believe that such a person exists."

Ella tilted her head slightly. "I thought as much. You know of the Goddess Pond back in Mineral Town, right?"

"Well…yes." Trent blinked, realizing that she had brought him to Forget-Me-Not's Goddess Pond.

"Do you spend much time there?"

"No."

"I want you to start."

"What?"

Ella exhaled. "I can't—there's so much to cover…just, do me a favour one day, after work or on a break or something, and head down there, and throw a flower into the water."

Trent stared at her blankly. "Why would I kill a flower to watch it float around in a pond?"

"I'll show you why." Turning on her heel, she strode over to the field near the pond and plucked a bloom. Trent watched as she walked over to the pond and tossed the blossom into the water. It rippled quietly, and then to his great surprise, slowly faded from view.

The doctor's mouth fell open. This defied the laws of—well—reality! He ran over to join Ella at the pond's bank and hung over the edge, gawking.

A surreal giggle seemed to emanate from the pond. Trent whirled around to confront the farmer when he heard a splashing sound, and recoiled as his lab coat and dress pants were soaked with pond water. He spun around again, shocked, to face the pond.

A woman's head and shoulders poked out of the water, not rippling or disturbing the serene water in any way. Her deep green hair was parted in the middle and done up in two Princess Leia-esque earmuff buns, a long green braid flowing freely down one side. Her mischievous green eyes glittered up at him delightedly.

Trent started in surprise, losing his footing on the uneven bank. Ella reached out in record time, grabbing his sleeve. The woman smiled, amused, and watched the doctor plummet in with a loud splash, followed closely by the farmer.

He surfaced first, gasping, and shook his dripping bangs out of his eyes. The green-haired woman giggled, twirling around in the water. "Suuurpriiiiiiiseee!~" she chimed, reminding him strongly of Kamar. "I love watching humans fall into the drink!"

Yeah. What a surprise. "Ella?" Trent called, treading water and looking around. As if on cue, a blonde head bobbed out of the water by his elbow, gasping for breath.

"Here," she spluttered, flipping her hair out of her eyes. "Guh…this tastes awful!"

The woman frowned, tapping her chin with a delicate index finger. Trent noticed she wore green nail polish. "It's not like I live here, you know."

Ella coughed up more water and dog-paddled towards the bank. "I'm sure it would taste like cream soda if you lived here…"

"What a delightful idea!" the woman laughed, twirling. Trent hauled himself up onto land, giving Ella a hand. The farmer seemed miffed as she wrung her hair out.

The doctor regarded the woman warily, numb with confusion and not sure what to make of her. Finally he found his voice again. "What are you…?"

Thrilled at being asked for an introduction, she rose gracefully out of the water. Again, she caused no ripples or disturbance in the tranquil surface. "I, my dear indecisive doctor, am the Harvest Goddess!"

Before Trent could hold it back, he scoffed. The woman's face darkened dangerously. "I see you don't believe me," she murmured, her voice sinister.

Uneasy, Trent stole a glance at Ella. The farmer had paused, mid-wring, and was watching the supposed goddess warily. When he turned back, he found the goddess's face directly in front of his, three times its former size.

Yelping involuntarily, he fell back on the ground in surprise. The Goddess loomed over him as she grew steadily larger. "You'll believe me after I unleash my wrath on you!"

"Dddddid you like your flower?" Ella cut in tactfully. The Goddess was immediately distracted at the thought of the gift.

"Yes! It was lovely. Fresh and colourful. Thank you, dearie." She smiled beatifically at the farmer as Trent let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"I rescued another sprite today," Ella continued conversationally. "His name's Kamar."

"Oh, Kamar, yes," the Goddess nodded. "He's such a precious little sprite."

"Aren't they all?" Ella cooed.

"Yes!" she gushed. "With their little hats and everything…Ooh, so CUTE! Just think, Eleanor: you're 25% done!" The Goddess clapped her hands with little-girl glee. "Soon I'll be back, and everything will be hunky-dory again!"

Ella grinned. "I'm doing my best," she said. "But I should let you go attend to other important things now. Thanks for showing up!"

"Anything for you, Eleanor~" sang the Goddess. As she turned to back away, she glanced at the doctor again disdainfully. "Oh. And do try to fix this little fiend's mind. It's because of people like him that I ended up this way, you know."

"I know," the farmer replied. "I'll do what I can. Bye!"

The Goddess wiggled her fingers happily at the farmer, and then disappeared in a burst of light. Trent was temporarily blinded and laid on the ground, staring up blearily at the sky.

"Is she gone?" he asked after a moment. He heard Ella scramble up the bank and get to her feet.

"Yeah."

He rolled over onto his side and stood, shivering in his sopping wet clothes. Ella stood hunched over with her arms wrapped tightly around her body. Trent felt completely numb, both with cold and with shock. He looked at her, speechless.

"I-I'm glad I didn't w-wear w-white tonight," the farmer murmured half-seriously, breaking the silence. Trent only nodded, speechless. They stood side by side, shuddering, for a few more minutes until Ella spoke up again. "Look…I know it's a lot to absorb, but we gotta get dry right now."

"Yes, we're tempting pneumonia," Trent replied automatically. Curiosity flickered briefly across the blonde's face.

"Do you always relate everything to health and medicine?"

"U-um...I don't try to."

"Could've fooled me," she replied wryly. Trent looked at her in surprise, but she was already on the move. "Come on, let's head back to square one."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Square one turned out to be Ella's farmhouse. After dumping a pile of blankets on her surprise guest, she had set to igniting a fire in the stubborn little pit Gotz had called a fireplace. He assured her that after a few more expansions, she'd be able to get a proper one installed, but right now she had to make do.

"I hate to impose like this," Trent said sleepily after his offer to help with the fire had been refused. He was leaning against the table, his legs crossed Indian-style under layers of blankets.

Ella straightened up and wiped her sooty hands on her overalls, watching the fire dance with satisfaction. "It's no problem. It's the least I can do, it's my fault you got soaked in the first place…but you're sure Elli won't miss you?"

Wrapping the warm quilts tighter around his shoulders, Trent replied, "I'm sure the Inn is locked up by now, or I'd go back…but Elli…" He shook his head. "Well, I'm reasonably sure she doesn't hang around outside her room until I return."

Ella slipped on a pair of fuzzy slippers and padded over to her kitchen, where there was only a single pot on the counter. "I wouldn't be surprised if she did. Hot chocolate for you?"

He murmured something about unnecessary calories. Rolling her eyes with her back to him, she poured in enough water for two mugs and padded over to her wardrobe. After pulling them out, she examined a pair of blue men's pajamas and eyed Trent.

Staring back warily, the doctor narrowed his eyes. "What…why do you have those?"

"You don't think I'm going to let a guest sleep in wet work clothes do you?"

Trent set his jaw determinedly. "Yes, I do."

She grinned wickedly at him. "That would be tempting pneumonia, Doctor! And maybe even hypothermia."

The doctor glared. "We're _not _in danger of hypothermia."

She tossed the pajamas to him. "And my dad's jammies don't bite."

"Why do you even have these?" he asked, holding them up suspiciously.

Ella pulled out a pair of pink pajamas and spread them out on her bed, drawing out her answer. "Well, um...I was kind of in a rush when packing…"

He raised an eyebrow. "You packed them by accident?"

"Sort of…"

There was a loud _clang _as the pot's lid dented under the heat of the steam. Ella quickly hid the dry undergarments she had chosen under her pajamas and rushed over to the kitchen, peering inside the pot. The water was bubbling steadily. Turning the heat off with one hand, she searched the cupboard with her other and grabbed two mugs.

Trent groaned inwardly when he saw what she had done. _Fine, whatever. Let the feisty girl have her way for once. It's not going to hurt._

Ella dumped two packages of chocolate powder into the mugs and slowly filled them. "Do you like milk or marshmallows?" she asked him over her shoulder.

"No, thank you. The drink is bad enough on its own, Miss Kelley."

At the kitchen, the girl smiled to herself. She balanced the two full mugs on one arm, pressing them to her body, and opened the fridge to pull out some fresh milk. She closed the door with her foot and placed the mugs on the table.

"Please change into the pajamas. The bathroom's right in front of you," she added, nodding her head towards the door by the fireplace. Reluctantly, Dr. Trent stood and gathered Cliff's pajamas up, heading off to change.

Ella poured some of Silver Farm's finest milk (which wasn't all that great yet) into Trent's mug, finishing the effect by adding a spoon and putting it on the table above where he'd been sitting. Finally, she placed her own mug on her bedside table and quickly changed while he was in the bathroom.

When he came out, he settled down again on the floor and held his mug just under his chin, staring distantly at the wall. Tonight answered less than half as many questions as it raised. Glancing at her curled up sleepily in bed, he decided that there had been enough confusion for one night.

"Miss Kelley," he began.

"Doctor, please, that's my mother. I'm Ella."

"You're Ella only if I'm Trent instead of 'Doctor'."

The farmer readjusted herself. "Alright, deal then. So what were you going to say?"

"I was just going to warn you that you're not off the hook yet, M—Ella. Thank you for your hospitality, but there are many questions still burning on my mind."

"I'll happily answer them," she replied in a tone that suggested otherwise, "but only if you visit the Mineral Town pond too, and prove it. Oh, and don't worry about staying over…it's only right, and it's no problem at all."

Trent finished off his hot drink, feeling warmed inside and out. He placed the mug on the table above as Ella crawled out of her bed, apologizing for the lack of couch, and produced yet more blankets from the wardrobe of wonders. Folding them neatly and thickly on the floor, she created a makeshift mattress at least as comfortable as any couch cushion.

And then, with a flick of the night lamp's switch, the house went dark.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

**A/N: *cheers and hands you towels and water bottles* You did it! You made it! Great work out there!**

**Okay, yeah, I've been running too many distance races lately. Ehrmm…**

**Thanks for reading the latest update, and hopefully the story is coming together a little bit more. I hope you enjoyed the chapter **

**If you can/want to, all reviews are welcome! Thanks again ^^;**


	8. Storm's AComin'

Trent drummed his pen idly against his desk as he looked over the pile of unfinished work still stacked before him. Luckily, he didn't have any appointments scheduled for awhile…

Because it was after 5pm on Thursday.

Elli poked her head into his office with a tired smile, clutching a bundle of papers. "You should consider packing it in soon, Trent. No matter how much you want to be a robot, you're still human and you need rest. You've been distracted all day…"

The doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "Maybe with practice I can be a cyborg someday."

Giggling, Elli clasped her hands together reverently. "Like tutor, like student!"

"It's a good thing Hardy isn't sensitive about his eye, Ms. Tippin," Trent remarked, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Anyway, don't run yourself into the ground, either. I see those circles under your eyes." He turned his gaze back down to stare blankly at the equally blank paperwork.

"I…I've been worrying about Granny," Elli admitted quietly. Trent glanced back up at her, assessing.

"Elli, we're doing everything we can for your grandmother, and she's doing very well," he reminded her gently.

The nurse shrugged. "I know….I just get so…" She paused. "Insecure."

"Well, take care of yourself. I don't want to find you here on the cot in the morning. Ever."

Elli blushed a light pink. "I—I'm flattered that you're concerned about me, Trent."

Not even bothering to look up at her from his calculator, Trent answered, "Well, it would be a lot harder to run this place without you."

The nurse's face fell, and she suddenly very felt foolish. Despite her better judgment, she murmured, "Is that it..?"

_That _made the tacit doctor glance up. "Hrm?"

She blushed a deeper shade of red, mortified at herself. "N-Nothing! Well, I'm going home now. Um…see you tomorrow."

Trent nodded in reply and set back down to his paperwork. As soon as he heard the clinic door close and Elli's key in the lock, he stood up and stretched.

The nurse was right: he _had _been distracted all day. Even faced with mountains of medical records and medicines, he couldn't get the mystery of the Ella and the Goddess-thing off his mind. He would never admit it, but he'd been dying all day to get to the Pond and make an offering.

But, suppose someone was there? Suppose someone stopped him and asked what he was doing? Suppose she didn't show up? Suppose she did?

What would he do? Would he ask her if she was the same person? Would he make her prove it?

That reminded him: another thing. Ella told him to visit the pond in Mineral Town—and prove it.

Why was he even _listening _to her? This was none of his business…and what did it matter to him anyway?

Frustrated, Trent stopped in his tracks and realized he'd been pacing. He snorted to himself. He was letting this get to him too much.

But he knew himself well; if he didn't hie his butt down to the goddess pond today, there was no way he'd be able to sleep tonight. Did you know sleep is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle?

Trent began to file the unfinished records back in the cabinet, marveling at his own lack of productivity. This was probably the day he had accomplished the least since working in the Mineral Town clinic. He sighed, shrugging off his white coat and hanging it up on the coat rack by the stairs before heading out the door and down the cobblestone street.

Businesses everywhere were closing for the day, and people were pouring into the streets, high-fiving each other and setting up dinner meets. Trent walked inconspicuously through the crowd, greeting people that made eye contact with a nod. It wasn't that nobody liked him; he just wasn't a social person. The sense of community in Mineral Town was almost tangible, and he hadn't quite found his niche yet.

When he reached the fork near Riverside Ranch and Saibara's Blacksmith, Trent debated whether to take the shortcut through the Kelley property or just cut through Gotz's backyard. While the enormous carpenter was like a (slightly) smaller King Kong who had been through laser-hair-removal, it was probably more considerate to go that way than trespass. Trent turned and walked by the smithy and then Chicken L'il's, where pink-haired Popuri was in the yard squealing over the return of a certain tanned beach boy. Rick stood off to the side, glowering ominously at the intruder.

_That's right, _Trent thought as he nodded to Kai, _today is the first day of Summer. _

He took a sharp right at the border of Chicken L'il's, following the road down to the carpenter's property. The path cut diagonally across the yard and lead him directly into the goddess pond area.

Cautiously, Trent scoped the place out before officially setting foot in. There was only Karen there, by the hot springs, but she was just packing up and leaving.

The doctor walked in and sat down by the bank. Karen tugged playfully on his shirt collar as she left, winking at his reflection in the still pool.

When he was sure she was gone, he exhaled and sat back in the grass, staring up at the sky. He tried to gather himself and prepare for either the shock or disappointment that was to come.

_Now or never_. Before he could convince himself how stupid it was, Trent scrambled back to the rocky border and plucked a handful of flowers, just as Ella had the night before. He walked briskly back to the bank and flung the still-fresh blooms onto the still surface.

For a long moment, nothing happened. The flowers floated innocently in the water, barely causing a ripple.

Then, slowly, they faded out.

Trent let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Kneeling down by the bank, he stared intently at the water as he waited for the deity to flash in.

She didn't flash in. In fact, the only thing that changed was a slight breeze picked up, brushing his hair against his cheek. Trent's brow wrinkled and he sat back on his heels.

A flower by nudged his hand. He glanced down and noticed that all the tall grasses and flowers were now bending in the sudden breeze.

"_I see…you have come crawling back_," the wind whispered. A chill ran down the doctor's spine. He cast about wildly, looking for the someone—or something—that was speaking. All he saw was vegetation.

"_I am…weak here," _the whisper continued.

Trent finally found his voice. As calmly as he could, he asked, "Where are you?"

"_I am everywhere. I can't embody myself in this location."_

"Why?" Trent called to the wind.

"_I am too far from my true home here. Forget-Me-Not…is close enough that I can form a physical anchor from the Other World."_

The doctor was quiet for awhile. "Where is the other world?"

"_You have a thirst for knowledge that must be slated."_

Trent bit back his sarcastic reply. "You seem different today."

"_I propose a bargain," _the wind purred. _"We both want something from each other."_

"Do we?" Trent challenged.

The wind gusted a little stronger this time, tugging at the fabric of his clothes. _"Must I spell everything out to you?"_

_That's more like it, _Trent thought. "I'd like to know what you want, and what you think I want."

A harsh breeze staggering him, the doctor toppled forward onto his knees. _"This is the proper way to address me. But I shall let it go for now."_

Trent stood up indignantly, brushing blades of grass off and examining the grass stains on his knees.

"_Anyway…it is evident that you are bursting with questions you would like to ask me. Therefore, I propose a deal. I help you, you help me."_

Trent tilted his head slightly to show that he was interested. The whisper continued.

"_In exchange for daily visits and gifts from you, I will answer one question of yours to the best of my __ability per day. As a bonus, I will act as your proof when you approach Ella."_

Trent blinked. "You'll advocate for me that I visited you?"

The breeze ruffled his hair gently. "You're a quick one."

This seemed too easy. "Your request is just to be visited?"

"It's lonely here, and I don't get the attention I deserve anymore!" The wind managed to sound petulant, and it took all of Trent's willpower to resist rolling his eyes.

"It's a deal, then," he said firmly.

"Most excellent! Well then, I'll see you tomorrow." The breeze slowly died out. Trent stood in thoughtful silence for nearly an hour before rushing back to the clinic to write down his questions.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Knock, knock, knock!

Sighing, Tess put down the tea towel she'd been drying the dishes with and glanced at her husband. Cliff rolled his eyes and set the plates on the counter before wandering off to answer the door.

"Yo! Man, it is _good_ to see you again! How's it hangin'?" The dark-haired young man let himself in, clapping Cliff's shoulder. "Mrs. Kelley, you look as beautiful as ever!"

Tess brushed strands of sweaty hair off of her forehead, smiling lightly. "Hello, Kai."

Kai beamed, spreading his arms. "Hello? You don't see me for three-quarters of a year, and all I get is a hello?"

"Yup," Cliff replied, resting his arm on Kai's shoulder, which was level with his own. "Too bad I can't do this anymore."

Tess grinned evilly at the beach boy. "Oh yes, I remember when you were just a short, pimply little teenager—"

"Stop!" Kai cried, mortified. "Okay, let's stick with the hello! Goddess, you two are parents all right. Anyway, where is the little lady? I haven't seen her, and I owe her a glomp."

Tess and Cliff exchanged glances. "What exactly do you want to do to my daughter?" Cliff asked suspiciously.

Kai backed off with a laugh. "Aw, you guys are _old_. It's just a tackle-hug! But seriously, where is she?"

"She moved to Forget-Me-Not Valley," Tess replied expressionlessly. She picked up a plate and began to dry it aggressively.

"Honey," Cliff said gently. "Allow me to wash the plate first next time, alright?"

Tess tore her eyes off the floor and glanced at the dish, which was still covered in food. She put it back on the counter and looked up at Kai, who looked like he'd just been hit by a train.

"FORGET-ME-NOT?" he demanded. "WHY IS SHE IN FORGET-ME-NOT?"

"She wanted to start a farm." Cliff told himself he wasn't lying—he just wasn't giving all the details.

"BUT SHE **LIVES** ON A FRIDGING FARM!"

"Kai," Tess snapped, "it's not the end of the world. Sit down."

The man obliged, sitting down with a sort of stunned expression. Cliff sat down beside him, and Tess slid into the chair opposite him.

"How do you know she's alright?" he demanded of the couple.

"We have our ways…" Tess answered mysteriously.

"I have to check on her!" Kai said, slamming his fist on the table. "I've waited all year to see these people, and I'm not letting her wiggle away."

Cliff looked the surfer over critically. "She's just a few towns over."

"Yeah, you're right!" Kai stared thoughtfully at the tablecloth. "If I spend a week here and a week there…"

"Are you sure you have enough money to stay at an inn there when you're not working?" Tess asked.

"I will be working, though!"

Cliff looked at him strangely. "Huh? You'll get a job?"

"Nah! I have an old sea shack there, too," he said triumphantly. "That is, if they haven't pushed it down.."

Tess's eyes goggled. "Why do you have a shack there, too? They have summer at the same time as we do…and you're always here!"

Kai shrugged in an offhand manner. "My parents used to travel a lot, and we lived there for awhile."

It was rare for him to talk about his parents, so Cliff and Tess let it go. "Well, I'm sure she'd love to see you."

"Yeah?" Kai asked, lighting up. "Yeah! That place is bo-o-o-o-ring! What it needs is a little beach culture." He stood up and headed for the door. "Well, I gotta roll. Ciao!"

The Kelleys waved and he shut the door firmly. Tess regarded Cliff thoughtfully.

"You know, Popuri won't be happy.."

Cliff blinked. "She won't?"

"No! Not with Kai going to a whole new town for a week just to see Ella."

"Why?" Cliff asked, mystified. Tess couldn't help but laugh.

"My dear, you are pretty oblivious, even for a man. Can't you see the poor girl is crazy about Kai?"

Cliff was shocked. "_Ella?"_

"Noo," Tess said, walking over to the counter. "Popuri!"

"Oh." Cliff made a face. "I can't see that couple ever happening."

"Hey." She whipped him lightly with the towel. "Opposites attract."

Cliff joined her at the sink. "Ella's not interested in Kai though, is she?"

Shaking her head, Tess replied, "I seriously doubt it. They're good friends, but I don't think she'll ever be interested in him romantically. She always scolds him for the way he treats girls, you know?"

"Should our daughter be friends with a man who still doesn't know how to act respectably?"

Tess sighed. "She's 21. We couldn't do anything about it anyway, and he means well. Besides…" She wrapped her arms around her husband's torso. "Remember when we were her age?"

Cliff grinned and tried to wiggle away. "Let's not turn this into a clichéd movie moment, alright?"

"Okay," Tess said wickedly. "Why don't you sweep the floor instead?"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Ella tiptoed into her chicken coop, carrying a tiny covered lamp that wouldn't disturb her sleeping chickens. It was just before dawn, and if she'd learned anything from the previous 12 chicks, it meant that her 13th hatching would be almost finished.

Sure enough, as she crept up to her incubator, she saw the tiny egg ready to crack open and reveal the new chick to the world. She smiled and let her eyes wander around the coop.

_Cheep cheep!_

Tottering around the bedded incubator was a fluffy yellow ball of downy feathers. Ella beamed and scooped the chick up in her hands, drying her feathers with a handkerchief.

"Cheep cheep!"

"Hi, 13," Ella cooed. _That's a terrible name….but if I name her something else, it'll throw my counting off. _She sighed and patted the chick's head with her finger. "You need a better name, honey. Something positive, that I can remember. Like...like Lucky. That's an ironic name, isn't it?"

The chick cheeped and nibbled on Ella's finger, making the farmer grin. "I think I might just have to keep you, Lucky."

Just then, Takakura poked his head into the coop. "There you are."

Ella turned around and smiled. "Morning, Tak. You're up early."

"Yes. I came to tell you, I just heard on the weather channel there's a hurricane warning for Monday."

The farmer's mouth fell open, and she gaped at the calm expression on her guide's face. "W-What? A _hurricane_? As in giant tropical storm that wreaks havoc and destruction wherever it goes hurricane?"

Tak nodded solemnly. "But don't worry."

"Don't _worry_?" Ella repeated. "What about my _farm_?"

"Relax," the man grumbled, stepping into the coop. "You made a good choice when you built these structures. These walls are solid stone, so your animals have a very high chance of survival."

That didn't help much. Her heart thudded painfully. "They could all die…?"

"They're safe, so long as the walls hold."

"What if they don't?" Ella asked fretfully. "Can we reinforce them or something?"

Takakura sighed. "Ella, sometimes you have to let the inevitable come and allow nature to take its course. Feel free to reinforce them with fodder, or something, but don't count on it doing much. Now, I want to go look at your house and see if it's capable of handling a storm."

"I just got it remodeled," the farmer told him, her voice barely audible.

"That don't mean nothin'. It's gotta be storm proof."

Reluctantly, Ella put Lucky down and stood. She followed Tak out of the coop and towards the house, watching the sun rise beautifully over the line of trees growing around her farm.

Tak knelt down in front of her house and inspected the base. "It's not looking good," he mumbled.

Ella looked out over her fields. She had just planted an abundance of crops on the first day of summer—yesterday—and now there was a high chance it was all for nothing.

Tak followed her gaze. "It's part of being a farmer, you know," he said softly. Ella looked down at him. "Taking chances, and stuff. You're relying on nature's bounty and the weather to sustain you. One with the earth."

The farmer blinked. She hadn't expected this from the gruff man. "You're right," she agreed.

He didn't reply, but creaked to his feet and rested his hands on his knees, leaning forward. "I don't think your house is safe enough for you."

Ella was stunned _again_. "W-What? So I have to go somewhere else and leave my animals alone?"

Tak turned to face her. "You've been making plenty of money. And I know you're attached to your livestock, but even if they don't make it…you have the resources to replace them."

Ella gaped, but managed to compose herself. "I…I guess…" The man placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Accept that there's nothing more you can do," he told her. She slumped.

"Okay…"

"You can probably stay at the Inn during the storm. My house is in the same condition as yours, so I'll be there too."

"Actually…" Ella scuffed her shoes against the grass. "I was thinking…I could go home to Mineral Town." A thought struck her. "Why doesn't _everyone _go to Mineral Town?"

Takakura blinked. "Errr…"

"There's an Inn there, too! And some people could stay with relatives or friends—like, Romana could stay with Ellen, and..and..Hardy could stay with the doctor, and…!" She was getting very excited. ELLA'S BRILLIANT IDEA SAVES ENTIRE VALLEY! She would write the article herself.

"I doubt many people would go for that," he said gruffly. "They consider themselves part of the valley."

Her face fell. "They'd stay here anyway…?"

Tak shrugged offhandedly and plucked a stalk of grass. "Probably," he replied, chewing it.

"Well, I'll try," she sighed. "Thanks, Tak. I'm going to go water my doomed tomatoes now."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

As soon as he was out of sight, Ella whipped out her sprite channel and flipped to the weather channel. The little blue sprite's face was plastered to the screen and tiny fists pounded, trying to get her attention.

"Finally!" he shrieked. "ELLA! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION SINCE WEDNESDAY! YOU TURNED IT ON BUT YOU _DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME!"_

Ella almost dropped the device in surprise. "Sorry! I just heard there's a hurricane warning for Monday, and I wanted to double-check it with you.."

"YES! ELLA! THERE **IS **A TORNADO WARNING FOR MONDAY! I'M SOOOO GLAD YOU NOTICED!" His tiny 'fro bobbed back and forth comically with his anger, forcing Ella to restrain her smile.

"Hey hey, keep your comb in," she told him. "I'm going out-of-town though. How's the weather looking for tomorrow?"

"Fiiine," growled the sprite, glaring at her. "Slightly cloudy, hardly any wind."

"Thank youuu," she beamed at him, and switched the channel off.

It was time to do some fear-mongering.


	9. Into the Woods

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harvest Moon series~**

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Rock stuck his head under his pillow and thrashed his feet, frustrated. How was a man supposed to sleep when there was all this _noise _going on downstairs? Just when it quieted down and he allowed himself to relax, another Muffy-like squeal went off.

He kicked his sheet off and rolled drowsily out of the bed before shuffling over to his door. Slipping on his dad's old red silk slippers, he made his way slowly out the door and down the stairs.

When he arrived in the foyer, he surveyed the scene with bleary eyes and yawned widely into his pajama sleeve. "Wasss gone on here?"

His mother looked up at him in surprise. "You're up! Aw, hon, go back to bed. Little Ella was just overexcited about the wee bitty hurricane."

"Because…WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Nami pointed out melodramatically, earning a seething look from the blonde farmer.

"Well, I'm sorry that I made the mistake of being concerned about you! Why _won't _you guys go anywhere safer?"

"They're not uncommon, dear," Ruby cut in smoothly. "We've ridden every single one out since…well, as long as I've been here, anyway."

"It's so sweet that you want to help us though, El!" Muffy clicked over to her friend and gave her a big hug.

"I still wish you'd go to Mineral Town," Ella grumbled. "If we start evacuating by noon, we could—"

"Do they not have hurricanes where you come from?" Nami interrupted snidely. Ella stiffened.

"Rarely," she replied through her teeth. "You realize you're being rude and condescending when all I want to do is help, don't you?" The redhead rolled her eyes and turned back to examine the same painting she scrutinized every day.

Rock waved his hand in a lazy dismissal. "Aw, don' worrrry 'bout the hurricane…it's no big…"

Muffy giggled. "Go back to bed, silly. It's only 11:30!"

Nami scoffed. "Or you could stay up and make something of your morning. Or day. Or life."

Rock turned slowly around and pointed at her. "You…I don't like naggy people. I'm going back to sleep."

The traveler snorted again. "As if I care what a philandering lay-about thinks about me." When Ruby fixed a scalding glare on her, she withdrew and muttered an apology that Rock didn't hear or care about. He turned and slowly dragged himself back up the stairs.

Ella sighed deeply. "Well, it was a worth a try. You know where to go if you change your minds…"

Ruby nodded. "Mmhm. Now, I understand that your house is probably unstable, so you're quite welcome to weather out the storm here if you'd like, honey."  
"Thanks for the offer, Ruby, but I planned to head back to Mineral Town. The hurricane hits on my birthday, anyway, so I might as well spend it with my family…"

"Oh!" Ruby clapped her plump hands together gleefully. "Delightful! Well! I can't let you leave without a little giftie! Why don't you pop into the kitchen, dear, and I'll see what I can find for you there!"

"Oh, thanks, but you really—"

"Silly girl," she chuckled, "I insist!" The small dark-haired woman gently pushed Ella towards the door. She finally relented and walked in, giving Ruby the evil eye over her shoulder.

Ruby shut the kitchen door firmly behind the farmer so that she could privately come up with a suitable gift to give her—a cake perhaps?—when her thinking was interrupted by the Inn doors being thrown suddenly open.

A young man burst in, carrying a slim black suitcase and a blender. He beamed widely at the cook. "Ruubaaayyy! Hey hey hey!"

She gasped, both tiny hands over her mouth. "Kai! Little Kai, is it really you?"

He winked. "The one and only!"

Ruby bustled up to him. "You've grown so much! Why, you're—you're practically a man now," she laughed.

"Aaw, I've been a man for a while, Rubes! Pay attention!"

She reached waaay way up to pat him on his bandana'd head. "You'll always just be a little boy to me, Kai. But what brings you back to our little valley? Not that I'm not thrilled to see you, but—"

"I want a room!" Kai laughed, using the blender to gesture at the suitcase. "So I came to the best place in town."

"Too bad for you, it's the only place in town," Ruby chuckled. "How are you, though?"

"Oh, I've been living it up, getting around. Winter sucks though, so I'm always on the move."

She looked up at him with an arched eyebrow. "Do you honestly move away in the Wintertime?"

"And the spring and fall," Kai replied with a shrug and a smile. "But whatever! Got a room for me?"

"Of course!" She bustled back to her desk and pulled a key from the shelf beside her. "Here you are. You know where to go. But how long will you be staying, just overnight?"

"Nawwww. I was thinking six or seven nights…"

Ruby's eyes boggled. "You want to stay here for an entire _week_? Why?"

"There's a friend here I have to catch up with," Kai replied with a lopsided grin. "Know a girl named Ella? Little blonde thing?"

The cook's mouth fell open. "Oops! I've been keeping her waiting!" She darted past the beach boy to the kitchen door and quickly went inside. "I'm sorry, Ella honey."

The farmer glanced up from the table. "No problem, Ruby."

"ELEANOR TERESA KELLEY!"

She flinched automatically at her full name. "Don't call—" Then she froze.

Beaming a painfully white smile, Kai ducked under Ruby's arm and ran full-on at the blonde, hugging her and hauling her out of her chair on impact. They lay on the floor, laughing breathlessly.

"Kaidan. Michael. Lockwood."

"That was a good one, eh?" He sat up on his knees and offered her a hand. "I warned you last year I was gonna glomp you. I mentioned that to your dad, and you should have seen his face!"

Ella accepted his help and sat up too, clutching her aching ribs. "You knocked all the air out of me! You could have at least refreshed my memory before the ambush!" She inhaled deeply, and then jabbed him in the stomach. He grinned evilly at her when her fingers just hit hard muscle.

"Oh, right. I forgot that you were a fitness freak. Oooh, it's so good to see you!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him with all her might. "You've got to see my new place before it gets destroyed by the hurricane."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Kai said, standing. "Nobody said anything about a hurricane." She bent her knees to hang off his neck and looked up at him.

"It's on Monday."

"That's your birthday!"

"You remembered this year!" She laughed and detached herself. "I know, doesn't nature love me? Well, I was planning on going home anyway."

Kai closed one eye, irritated. "But I just rented a room for a week!"

"Sucks," Ella shot back unsympathetically. "You should come back too, though."

Kai considered. "It's Saturday…when were you leaving?"

"Tonight. Pleeeeeeaaaaasssee come! Whatever you came here for can wait, yeah? Oh!" she said, tapping his shoulder, "By the way, I noticed there's this little shack on the beach that looks like the one in Mineral Town. Is…it yours, by any chance?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I was gonna reopen it for the week I was here. I wanted to alternate between here and Minny."

"Minny?" Ella raised an eyebrow. "Please say you didn't nickname my hometown Minny."

"Alas, it's been done," Kai replied, patting her back in mock reassurance. "Fear not, I'll come up with a worse one for this place."

"What, Alzheimer Valley?" she suggested drily.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, nevermind!"

"Oh! Oh, yeah!" Kai laughed. "That's pretty awful, Eleanor."

Ella punched his arm harder than she needed to. "No more of that, Kaidan."

"Here we are!" Ruby reappeared in the doorway, carrying the most beautiful chocolate cake Ella had ever seen. Its alternating layers of chocolate and fudge were lined with tiny chocolate hearts, and the top layer was both dark and milk curled chocolate shavings. A giant chocolate bow sat on top, while the circular surface and base were bordered with chocolate icing.

"Aaahh…" Ella salivated.

"Whoa! For me? You shouldn't have," Kai said teasingly, trying to wrest the cake from its baking wizard.

"Ah-ah-ah," Ruby scolded. "This is Ella's birthday cake. I'll put it in a box, but I'd really like her to try it, okay hon?"

"Aaahh…" Ella repeated.

"I'll just take care of that for her," Kai continued smugly. "Until she's able to form sentences again." He took the cake and placed it on the table while Ruby went off to find a box.

After the cake was boxed up, Kai sat on the table and held it in his lap. "So, I want to leave with you."

Ella looked up. "Back to Minny…rel Town?"

"Aha! It's working its magic on you! Anywho yeah, there's no point in me being here if you're…like…if I can't open my shack in the hurricane. Doubt there will be many people out at the beach."

Ella snorted. "Never know, there might be. They're able to evacuate and they won't, so they're pretty much all psychos…I can just see them dancing around a campfire on the beach in the middle of the storm."

Kai grinned easily. "Yeah. No wonder I fit in here so well."

"You probably made this the weird place it is today, Kai. They should make you mayor." He grinned widely at her. "Well, I want to go reinforce some of my buildings with lumber. Coming with? I have pineapples growing~…"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

The sun was setting as Kai stood back, munching on an almost-ripe pineapple, and surveyed their work. Ella wiped her sweaty brow on her sleeve and stood back with him.

"Not much more we can do, El," Kai remarked. She sighed, still looking dissatisfied. The two had nailed boards together and tried to secure the second walls to the coop, and so far it just looked like a piece of crap.

"Do you think it'll change anything?" she asked. He exhaled deeply.

"Mebbe. Hard to say. Depends how severe the storm is, I guess." _Probably not, _he thought.

Ella sighed and looked over at her barn, where support beams had been fitted to the corners of the walls, braced diagonally. She'd learned somewhere that triangles were the strongest shapes, so her pathetic hope was that the beams would pull through and maybe save her cows. "Well, I guess you better go grab your bags if you're coming with me tonight."

"Yeah…"

"Go on!" she said as she gave him a playful push. "I'm taking Oakley with me, so he can be our beast of burden. I'll load him up with our luggage when you get back."

Kai nodded wearily and trudged off towards the hotel. Ella scurried back to her house where she packed a few changes of clothes, her toiletries, a few pictures and a book. She also herded River and Dusk into their travel pens after feeding them, so they'd resist less. The black cat was snuggled up and asleep as soon as Ella closed the opening. Finally, she filled a backpack with snacks and two water bottles.

She lugged her suitcase outside and plopped it on her doorstep, where Oakley stood waiting. He snorted and swished his tail impatiently.

"There's a good boy," she murmured to him, stroking his nose. "Now just hold still for me, okay? We'll be on the road soon, I promise."

He snorted and bobbed his head up. Ella heaved up her heavy luggage with a grunt and fastened it to the saddle. As she reassessed the amount of room on the horse, she decided that Dusk and River would have to share a pen.

It was dark and almost chilly now. A bobbing light caught her eye, and she glanced up to see Kai lugging his pack and a flashlight towards her. When he got to Oakley, he helped her secure his bag, and then offered to hold River and Dusk in his lap to save room. He mounted up first, and she passed the sleepy animals up to him, and then clambered up in front of him and took the reins.

"Gentlemen, you may start your engines," Kai mumbled from behind her, as she turned her horse around to face the farm entrance.

Andddd…they were off.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Kai stared out in front of the horse in complete and utter boredom. It was 3:30 a.m., and they were somewhere in the forest between Mineral Town and Forget-Me-Not, hopefully getting close to Gotz's property. Their way was lit partly by the moon, and mostly by Kai's dying flashlight. He and Ella had swapped places, and he now held the reins as Ella's head rested on his shoulder. She'd fallen asleep at least an hour ago—at about the same time as his butt.

Grumpily, he shifted his weight in the saddle. Oakley snorted in annoyance and flicked his ears back. "What?" Kai demanded of the animal.

Oakley snorted again and held his head higher. "So that's how it's gonna be, huh?"

The horse started munching on the bit, jerking the reins in Kai's hands around. The cook tugged back on them. "Stop that!"

Oakley turned his big head around to stare at Kai with large, accusing dark eyes. Kai tried to ignore the stare. "I need a big freakin' cappuccino," he grumbled.

The horse was still staring at him. Kai narrowed his eyes and demanded, "What're you looking at, ya mule?"

Oakley stumbled on a root. "Real graceful," Kai commented. "Ella shoulda named you Twinkletoes." Oakley turned his head back forward and plowed on through the forest. Kai yawned loudly.

And then, suddenly, his flashlight died and Oakley marched into a giant tree. Kai opened his mouth and a string of expletives fell out as he tried to back the horse up.

But Oakley stepped on something squishy and freaked out. Rearing on his back hooves, he whinnied loudly and threw the riders off his back before galloping blindly into the woods.

"RREEOOW!"

"OWWWW!"

"Ella?" Kai cried out, feeling around for his friend.

"Oh _Goddess_, what happened? Urghh! Ow!" He could faintly see a figure struggling on the dark, apparently wrestling with her own face. He crawled over to her and tried to grab her hands, but instead felt a small furry object. "Aahhh! Dusk! Ow!"

The traumatized tabby had clawed up the farmer's face before clinging to her cheeks in terror. Kai could see her orange eyes glowing eerily in the moonlight.

Weakly, Ella pulled her claws out of her skin and held the cat up away from her face. "Ow ow ow…Kai? What happened? Where are Oakley and River?"

"Um…" Kai looked over his shoulder in the direction of Oakley's escape. "I don't really know where your stupid horse is, but he ran off in a that-way-ish direction."

Ella sat up. "My stupid horse? Horses are easily spooked, Kai."

"I thought they were supposed to be loyal," he retorted. "If he were truly loyal, he would have at least taken us with him instead of, you know, tossing us off and then leaving."

Ella sighed. "Riii-ver? Where are you, boy?"

Kai whistled. "Heeeere, boy!"

They listened for the sound of little doggy feet padding through the forest, but they didn't come. Ella's shoulders slumped. "Guess we better keep going…"

"It's late," Kai agreed. "If it makes you feel better, he probably followed Oakley…"

Ella pulled herself to her feet. "I hope so…so, I don't know where we are…but our best bet is to follow Oakley too. He knows his way home."

Kai stood. "Would he go to _your _home, or your _parents' _home, though?"

"Oh, Goddess." Ella rubbed her eyes. "I don't even know! This is stupid. Why is it so hard to go home?"

Kai started walking after Oakley. "Come on…whichever home the mule went to would work for me right now."

Ella walked slowly after him, cradling Dusk in her arms, as her brain slowly woke up. "Follow me," she told Kai as she passed him. "I've had more rest than you. Take a break."

"I can't seeeee. I'm tiredddd," he whined.

"Aww, poor baby," Ella said teasingly. "Do you want me to hold your hand?"

"No. You probably have cooties." He stuck his tongue out at her childishly.

She grinned. "You're right, I do."

They continued on in silence, Kai occasionally stumbling over roots in his exhaustion—even after Ella grabbed his sleeve to help guide him. Finally, he just collapsed under a tree with a groan.

"I can't go onnnn," he cried melodramatically. "It's freaking late, I'm freaking tired, and who knows where in the freaking hell we are?"

Ella pulled on his arm. "Kai, you've got to," she said pleadingly. "We're never going to get out of here if we stop now!"

"Sure we will," he said drowsily, tugging his arm out of her grasp. "We'll keep going tomorrow…"

"No! We'll be disoriented and completely lost tomorrow! Get up," she begged. His eyes slowly closed and his head rolled onto his chest. "Kai!"

When she saw he wasn't responding, she scrambled down to his legs and grabbed his feet, dragging him away from the tree. He still didn't stir. "KAI! FREAKING GET UP NOW!"

Panicking, she searched her backpack and pulled out the last bottle of water. An evil smile crossed her face as she closed the distance between herself and Kai. Unscrewing the lid, she dumped the entire bottle unceremoniously onto her friend and waited eagerly for him to splutter awake.

Kai snored lightly, still fast asleep.

Ella's smile quickly died on her dry lips as she stared at the empty bottle. Kai…had finished off the other.

She plopped down on the grass beside him, dumbfounded. "Goddess, I'm so _stupid!" _ Angrily, she tossed the empty plastic container at Kai.

After her frustration simmered down a bit, she crawled over and rested against the tree. "We're going to die of thirst out here," she grumbled to nobody in particular. But if you can't beat 'em…join 'em.


	10. Call of the Wild

**A/N: Without further ado, here is Chapter 11. This one practically wrote itself, it was just finding TIME to get it down on digital paper that was the problem! Well, I hope you enjoy it ^^**

**..Oh, yeah.**

**Disclaimer: The Harvest Moon series is NOT my property! If it were I'd be suitably rich and would have enough time to write my stories whenever I felt like it.~**

**Probably. **

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The early morning sun filtering through the trees' leafy canopy burned into Kai's eyes. He groaned, burying his face in his arms, and tried to go back to sleep.

But as he snuggled into the tree trunk, he noticed a cold dampness around his chest. He patted his shirt and felt the fabric was slightly stiff where it had dried.

Dried?

"HOLY CHEESES!" Kai cried, floundering around in panic. He was alone in the middle of a clearing in a dark and mysterious forest with a wet shirt. WHAT COULD THIS MEAN?

Wait.

Alone?

"ELLA!" he screamed again, more panicked now. What could have happened to her? What if she was eaten by a giant ferocious grizzly bear that was following his scent at this very moment? Then, he kicked himself. Great! Now he was SUCH an obvious target for said grizzly bear. Just follow the loud screaming voice….

He crawled through the bed of leaves on the forest floor, inwardly cringing at the loud crunching sound they made. It was time to put all that useful knowledge he'd gained from Boy Scouts in the city to good use.

Kai sat down, cross-legged, with two sticks that he found lying in some weird order in the clearing and started rubbing them together. "Spark!" he ordered. They ignored him, and all he achieved was rubbing off all their bark. He threw them down in frustration.

Great. Now he was going to starve or freeze to death—in the middle of the summer—all alone in the godforsaken bush that Ella had gotten him lost in. He stood up and began pacing before stumbling over another annoying stick.

"What is this?" he demanded of nobody, glancing down at the ground. What he saw appeared to be a deliberate attempt to….help him.

A crude letter B lay on the ground beside an equally crude R and a P, all three made out of sticks. Kai knelt down to examine them further.

"Brip," he read, squinting at the word. "Burp?" Glancing over at the two sticks he'd tried to make fire with, he put two and two together. He walked over and picked them up before heading back and trying to figure out where they were before he'd moved them.

After arranging and rearranging them, Kai had finally melded them into a decent-looking B. It was the only thing he could think of that the letter could be, but BRB didn't make any more sense to him than BRP did. In fact, it made less—BRP was at least 75% of a word.

As Kai sat there puzzling at the sticks on the ground, a branch snapped behind him. Paranoid, he whipped his head around and sat perfectly still, listening.

For a long while, nothing happened. Slowly, Kai turned around again. It wasn't long before he heard a snuffling sort of noise, and rustling foliage coming from over his shoulder.

His heart pounding in his ears, the beach boy reached for a giant branch that lay nearby and held it like a spear. "Wh-who's there?" he demanded.

There was no reply, but the sticks snapping sounded louder. "Ella?" Kai asked hopefully. To his dismay, no blonde head popped cheerfully out of a bush to greet him, but he could definitely tell _something _was on its way.

Oh, Goddess, what if it's the bear?

Unintentionally, Kai let out a high-pitched sort of wail. How was a guy supposed to defend himself against a ravenous grizzly armed with only a big stick and the world's most unhelpful message?

Suddenly, something brown exploded out of a bush, making some sort of rabid inhuman noise as it flew at him. Merciless black eyes glinted hungrily at him. Kai screamed and flailed the branch around in a futile effort to fend it off.

"Hey, hey, watch out!"

Already on edge, Kai yelped again and dropped the stick in surprise. There was a whimper as it hit the little head of the pup bounding around his feet, but he didn't notice.

Dr. Trent pushed a leafy branch aside and stepped out from behind the foliage, looking around warily. Finally, his eyes came to rest on the jumpy beach boy in front of him.

Kai grinned lopsidedly. "Am I glad to see you! What's up, Doc?"

The doctor looked back down towards Kai's feet. "You dropped your weapon on Ella's dog." Kai blinked and looked down, where River sat cowering by the branch.

Kai knelt down to the pup and stroked his head. "Sorry, boy," he murmured. "I thought you were…" He didn't even bother to finish his sentence, deciding it was better to be thought oblivious than too stupid to tell the difference between an attacking bear and an excited little dog. When he looked back up, the doctor had moved from his spot in front of him to beside him, staring at the message. Kai stood up.

"Weird, eh?" he said. "I don't know what the hell it's supposed to mean, though." He scratched his bandana thoughtfully.

Trent blinked. "Was Ella with you?"

"Uhhh…" Kai shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "She was…"

"She was?" Trent repeated, an eyebrow quirked. Kai shrugged.

"I kinda fell asleep…and this is what I woke up to. Honest, Doc!" he added, raising his hands in surrender, when the man looked at him askance.

"And this message was here?"

Kai nodded. "Yup. But I used two sticks from it to try and make a fire, so I might've screwed it up big time. I think that's what it's supposed to say though."

The doctor just stared at him. "_What?_" Kai demanded. "I was alone in an untamed land! My first thought was to make fire!"

Trent gave him an even weirder look. "You're practically sitting on Gotz's property! He could almost sue you for trespassing."

"What?" Kai cried, his eyes boggling. Trent came dangerously close to grinning, but averted his attention to the message on the ground.

"BRB," he said.

"Yeah. Bee are bee," Kai repeated, not cluing in.

"Be right back," Trent continued. Kai looked up in alarm.

"Huh? Wait, what? Where you going?"

"What? No, that's what it means."

"Naw, it's just three letters. B, R, and another B. I'm guessing, man, I don't really know, 'cause—"

"That's what they stand for."

"What do they stand for?"

"Be right back."

"No, tell me, man!"

"I just did!"

"No, you keep sayin' you're gonna leave!"

"No, I'm saying that B R B stands for 'be right back'!"

There was a long pause as Kai digested this. Crickets chirped in the background. "So…the bear that ate Ella is threatening me?"

"NO!" Trent exclaimed, frustrated. Then he blinked, "What?"

Kai stared at the sticks. "Wait a sec…Ella left this message!" He could almost hear angels distantly singing 'hallelujah' at his epiphany.

Trent snorted, amused. "That's my theory…so you have no idea where she went?"

Kai shook his head, still slightly dazed by his own cleverness. "..Nope."

The doctor looked down at the dog. "River?" River jumped around, excited at his name. Trent turned back to Kai and asked, "Got anything of Ella's?"

Kai searched his person and dug through his pockets before shaking his head sadly. "No can do, man."

Then, they both instinctively turned over to the tree trunk where Kai had slept. There, in a crumpled heap, sat Ella's hoodie.

"Ella's hoodie!" Kai yelled, dashing over to pick it up. River slobbered over his heels in excitement when they reached it, as Kai hugged it. "She didn't get eaten by a bear!" Then, he mashed the garment into the puppy's surprised face. "Smell it!"

Trent sat down by her message and rubbed his eyes. "Maybe we should wait for her to come back instead of sending a dog on its own into the bush…"

"It won't be on its own!" Kai answered confidently. "I'll go with it!"

Trent stopped rubbing his eyes and glanced sharply up at him. "I think that's a _worse _idea." The beach boy scowled back at him, and then grabbed River's collar.

"Come on boy, let's go find Ella!"

"Kai, she said she's coming back, why do you want to go running off after her?"

"Who knows that was her who wrote it?" Kai sniffed, ignoring the "you're-a-blockhead" look the doctor blatantly gave him.

"I still don't think you should," Trent grumbled, but his advice was not heeded by the overexcited beach boy and his friend's dog as they raced off in the wrong direction. Sighing, the doctor pulled a book out of his lab coat and reclined against the tree trunk to settle in for an hour's read.

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Satisfied with her fistfuls of berries, Ella picked up her loaded backpack and started making her way back to the clearing where she'd left Kai. Hopefully, the fickle guy had figured out her message and stuck around long enough for her to return.

Hopefully.

But, as she was disappointed to see when she got back to the clearing, he wasn't there.

Ella was beyond angry. She threw herself down on the forest floor with a frustrated scream and stared up accusingly at the sky.

"Annoying, isn't he?" a voice asked, startling her. She quickly rolled over and sat up on her knees.

"Oh! Trent!"

The doctor nodded at her from under the tree. "I told him you'd be back…"

Ella blinked at him, her brain a muddled mess. "Wait…what are you doing here?"

Trent held up a finger, and then yawned politely into his arm before turning back to her. "Your dog…River, right?" She nodded. "He was running around Mother's Hill, barking like he had rabies or something, so I went to catch him and he led me on a wild goose chase over here…where I ran into Kai…who took off with your dog to go find you." Ella's mouth dropped open.

"WHAT?"

"I told him it was a bad idea," Trent said with a shrug.

"He took my DOG?"

"That's what's bothering you?" the doctor asked, a grin tugging at his lips.

"Well, yeah!" Ella began pacing. "River doesn't know his way around! He could get hurt!"

"They'll be back…"

"Maybe…"

"Probably. Take it easy, it's not a huge forest."

"Guess there's nothing to do but wait, then…"

"Guess so."

Defeated, Ella slumped down beside him and stared at her boots. Trent opened his book and resumed reading.

Ella got bored. She craned her neck at an awkward angle, trying to get a glimpse at the title, and noticed Trent giving her a bizarre look in the corner of her eye. She blushed a bit and straightened. He continued reading.

She fidgeted. "So…what're you reading?"

Turning a page, Trent answered, "Common Woodland Flora and Fauna."

Ella's shoulders sank in disappointment. "That sounds…informative. And practical. To be reading in the forest."

Trent gave a small nod. Minutes passed, and Ella's stomach rumbled. The doctor didn't say anything, but her face automatically flushed, and she mumbled an apology.

"It's only natural," was his reply.

Ella was still incredibly embarrassed. "Wanna…eat something?"

Trent put his book down. "You have food?"

"Yeah!" Ella beamed. "Check it out." She grabbed her bag and pulled out the bushels of fresh-picked purple berries, offering him a handful. "They're really good."

"Thanks." Trent slowly accepted the berries and watched as she wolfed down another four or five. He looked over the ones in his hand suspiciously, and his brow creased as a warning bell went off in his head.

"Umm…" he began.

She looked up and delicately wiped off the purple juice around her lips. "What's wrong? Really, they're pretty good."

The more Trent thought about it, the louder the warning bells got. "Just to be safe," he told her, trying to keep calm, "don't eat any more until I check them out."

Ella immediately dropped the berries in her hand.

"Just hold on." Trent picked up the book he was reading and leafed quickly through the index. Ella had an unsettled feeling in her stomach, but she told herself it was just nerves. Poisonous berries tasted bad. Right?

Trent set his jaw slightly when he found the entry he'd been dreading. Glancing up at Ella, he noticed that her pallour had paled. "Relax," he told her. "How do you feel?"

"F-F-Fine," she stuttered.

"That's not the t-t-truth," he shot back. He crawled towards her and she shied away, pressing herself against the tree. "Let me get a look at your throat, please."

"Were they poisonous?" she asked, deflecting the request.

Trent sighed. "The book says it depends on the person."

"W-What?"

Trent took her bottom jaw and gently pried her mouth open, peering inside. "I can't really tell…look, Ella, we need to get back to the clinic…"

She winced. "We can't go back without Kha."

"What..?"

Her eyes widened in panic. "Kha? KHAA? Wuh khah kho bah wi'ouh…" Her hands flew to her mouth.

Trent flipped the page open again. "It says some of the early effects include swelling of the facial features and mouth…Oh, Goddess."

"Ahm pohsuneh?" Ella whimpered.

"I…don't know what you're saying," he told her honestly. "Just try to relax. If we get to the clinic quickly this shouldn't be a problem." He stood and brushed off his pants before offering her a hand. She shook her head vehemently.

"Hwe kaht kho wiffou' Kha," she whispered. Trent looked at her in puzzlement before deciding she was concerned about Kai.

"I told him we're near Gotz's property," he said comfortingly. "If—when—he makes it back here, he'll be able to get out on his own."

"Buh…"

Trent cut her off by shaking his head sternly. "You might bite your tongue if you keep talking. He'll be fine, alright? We need to get you checked out." He bent down and began to lift her up, but to his immense surprise she slapped his arm in frustration.

"Dohn!" she cried. "Kha ajhgf skdjfhrhgfdhb…"

Trent glared. "Now you're not making _any _sense. Can't you see it's dangerous to wait out here like this? Who knows how long it will take the berries to take effect?"

Ella looked at him lamely. He winced. "Okay, _I _do." Sighing, he checked his watch and continued, "How long ago did you eat the first berry?"

The blonde sniffed and looked pointedly away. Trent started to get annoyed again. "For Goddess' _sakes_, you can talk now, okay?"

She looked back at him, still irritated. "Abouh twibf sdjfh djghdfgd…"

Trent sighed. "Can you hold up the number of fingers for approximate minutes?" She flashed both her hands twice, all ten fingers up. "Twenty minutes ago?" She nodded. Suddenly, she fell forward, clutching her gut with a moan. The doctor was alarmed.

"We don't have time to wait for him to get back," he told her, trying once again to pick her up since she wouldn't cooperate. But again, she resisted and squirmed out of his arms.

"Iverr an Kha…"

Trent could tell she was fading fast. He checked his watch again—he could probably race her to the clinic in about eight minutes if he had to, and she would probably be alright for another three minutes or so. Before she passed out, that is.

"Tell you what," he said to her, still looking at his watch. "We'll wait for ten more minutes max. Alright? And if he's not back by then, we get to the clinic pronto."

She considered. "Ith'een…?"

"Fifteen?"

She nodded, and Trent inwardly groaned. She was _bartering_. Well, fine, let her think fifteen, she'd be a goner in three anyway. "Deal," he said aloud. The farmer smiled slightly and jostled for a more comfortable position in the foliage. When she started to shake, Trent wrapped his coat around her and checked her temperature.

It was feverish, and she tried to rip the coat off. "No," he told her, securing it down. If she weren't so weak, Trent would easily bet his entire clinic—Elli included—that she would have fought him back. Instead, she lay limply in the leaves as her condition worsened.

Trent started to worry. What if he'd calculated wrong? What if they really didn't have the eleven or so minutes before she needed medical attention?

She was sweating buckets now, wisps of blonde hair sticking to her forehead and falling into her eyes. Enough, he decided, was enough.

Trent stuck one arm under her knees, using the other to support her upper back and started to run, carrying her bridal-style towards the forest's border.

Ella made a weak protest. "Time was up," he lied. She bought the excuse and relaxed before blacking out just as Trent crossed the lumberjack's yard and reached Riverside Farm property.

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The winery door opened, and Duke poked his head out into the vineyard. "Hey, Cliff," he called, "it's your lunch break. Good work. See ya in an hour, yeah?"

The ponytailed man stood up with a stretch. "Yeah, see ya, Duke." He wiped his forehead before shouldering his bag and heading out of the winery toward his farm.

When he got to the ranch, he opened the door to find his wife sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee in her hand, staring at the newspaper blankly. She was still wearing her pink housecoat, and her hair was mussed and hadn't seen a brush yet that day.

He stood in the doorway, confused, as she slowly turned to face him. Her eyes were misty. "Our baby is going to be 22 on Monday, without ussssss!" After this announcement, she burst into tears.

Cliff froze, unsure what to do. "Tess—don't cry, it's okay…"

She wailed inconsolably. "Sh-sh-she's all aloooooneee! And we-we-we have to celebrate her b-b-b-birthday without h-her!"

"No…" Cliff said soothingly. "She's fine…"

"But I'm nottttt!" His wife stood up and walked towards him when he spread his arms to hug her. While sobbing over his shoulder, she stopped abruptly and stared out at the farmyard. "What's th-that…?"

Cliff loosened his grip and turned around to follow her gaze. What they saw was a very frazzled, dark-haired doctor sprinting through their field carrying a limp blonde girl in his arms. They stared openly at him when he ran by, shouting, "Tell you later!" and disappeared down the road into the town.

Slowly, the Kelleys turned to look at each other. They were both speechless for a full twenty seconds before Tess broke the silence asking, "Could it be…?"

Cliff sighed. "Quite possibly."

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**A/N: I'd appreciate it lots and lots if you would review too (: It's nice to get favourite notices and alerts, but I like reviews best. Just sayin' ^^**

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. The ER

**A/N: Sorry about the wait guys. You know…school crap and all that jazz. I've had the first half written out for months, I just needed to finish it! So, without further ado…please enjoy Chapter 12 :]**

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Hushed whispering and rustling. Her head pounded.

"Put the cake down," someone hissed. "You think she'll want it _now?_"

"Who _doesn't _want cake now?" a male voice replied, indignant.

More rustling. "H-Hey! Give that back!"

Her arm itched. She moved a hand to scratch it, and felt a vicious wrench on the top of her hand. Something long and sharp and pointy was pressed into a vein. She let out a weak moan in pain and distress.

Footsteps sounded, and leathery shoes scuffed the floor as the wearer turned on his heel.

"Someone keep an eye on her intra—eyy, what're you doing with _that _in here?"

There was a long guilty silence until finally a girl's voice spoke up. "_He _brought it in, I just took it away from him, because I thought it was stupid!"

"It's not stupid," the male sniffed. He sounded injured. "It's her birthday."

The girl's tone was flat. "Yeah, and she's in the freakin' clinic, ya ding-dong."

"Don't call him a ding-dong!" a second, offended female voice shrieked.

The third voice cut in. "I said that you could come in to see her if you were quiet and didn't disturb her rest."

"We didn't!" the first girl's voice insisted.

"You didn't? Look at her."

She abruptly stopped scratching at her arm and lay perfectly still.

"I saw that," the male voice inserted before he sighed and walked over. She felt weight press the side of the bed down as he sat beside her. She imagined he sat with his legs crossed and held a clipboard in his hands.

"Can you open your eyes?" he asked.

She tried, slowly. The bright light burst in aggressively and she pressed the base of her palms to her eyes in pain. The needle tugged persistently on her hand.

"I'm sorry." The weight lifted off the bed. "Kai, could you dim the lights, please?"

"Sure thing, doc!" A chair scraped back on the hard floor, and instantly the harshness of the light poking in between her fingers became bearable. She put her hands down and cautiously opened her eyes again, then jumped back when the first things she saw were two giant, concerned brown eyes.

"Ella! You're alive!" Kai threw his arms around her neck and hugged her with all his might—which was pretty considerable since his only hobby was working out.

"Gack!" the blonde choked, as the watchful doctor hauled Kai off her by the ear.

"Don't," he snapped. "She's been out cold on heavy medication for the past twenty-two hours, and the first thing you do is try and squeeze the breath out of her when she comes to?"

"Twent—" Ella rasped before touching her raw throat.

"I'll get you some water." Trent walked over to the curtain and turned to look back at the beach boy. "Kai, nobody touch her, Kai."

As soon as the doctor was out of the room, Kai thumbed his nose at his back and turned back to Ella. "Huh. Some people. Nobody's probably ever hugged him."

A girl shrieked and giggled again to Ella's left. The farmer looked over at her, and saw Popuri and Ann sitting in chairs beside Kai.

"Ahn!" she croaked, and then rubbed her sandpapery throat again.

"Girrrrl!" The redhead peeked over her shoulder, and then cautiously crawled over the bed and gently hugged her friend. She scooted back to her seat before the doctor returned. "I'm so glad you're okay. Happy birthday, Ella," she added with a giggle.

Ella snorted and then swallowed painfully. Trent came back in, balancing a plastic cup of water on his clipboard, and Ella groaned when she saw the tub of medicine he carried in his other hand.

"Here." She accepted the water and slurped it greedily. "Ah-ah, watch the IV," he murmured, and Ella promptly stopped moving her arm as her eyes slowly roved down to look at her hand. A needle sat menacingly on her hand, poking through her skin and feeding a clear liquid into her bloodstream. She felt her stomach flip just looking at it, and put the cup of water down on the table beside her.

The doctor raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he carefully measured out the viscous pink liquid in the tub. Ella's stomach flipped again. "Do…Do I have to take that?"

Trent shrugged offhandedly. "Only if you want to live."

She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to decide if she was annoyed with his sarcasm or not. Popuri, on the other hand, screeched shrilly and gripped Kai's arm. "She's _dying_?"

"Okay," Trent said to Ella as he placed her meds on the table, "do you want to take this now, or after you eat?"

"Eat?" she whimpered.

"Yes. Eat. 'Cause you get hungry if you don't eat." He glanced over at Popuri with a wry smile. "Also, you die."

The pink-haired maiden blinked at him, and then her mouth fell open. "I'll take it now," Ella said quickly. Trent took a straw out of the tub and put it in the medicine, then after a moment pulled a tiny margarita umbrella and added it to the "drink". Finally he handed it to Ella who looked at it unhappily. "Gee, thanks, this is so thoughtful."

"Saving lives? Psh, that's the least I can do." He stood up and turned to Popuri. "Relax, she's not in danger now."

Popuri's hand went to her heart and she exhaled. "Oh, thank the Goddess! Eat up, Ella!"

"Um," said Trent, "I'll have to ask everyone to come back later, because I have to run some tests on Ella."

The farmer made an exaggeratedly horrified face at her guests, much to the amusement of Kai and Ann. The three friends then stood up, bid their farewells and speedy recoveries, and exited stage left.

Trent sat down at the foot of her bed again with a sigh, and briefly checked over his notes before meeting her eyes. "So…any questions for me?"

"Yeah, a few dozen or so," she replied, trying to lighten the mood. He tilted his head to one side and answered,

"Fire away."

"Ummm…" Ella began to idly rifle through the questions in her mind, and she realized that they could all be generally summed up with one: "What…happened?"

Trent yawned widely into his arm. "You ate a handful of poison berries that took effect on you about twenty-five minutes after consumption…so you ended up passing out, and I brought you here. You're hooked up on some intravenous fluids since you were out cold for so long, so your body will probably be weak and stiff for awhile. Now that you're awake though, we should be able to get into solid foods again."

"We?" Ella questioned mischievously. "You're on a liquid diet too, Doctor?" He grimaced.

"Actually…I went through the dangerous berries section in the back of my book, and turns out I'd eaten a couple nasty yellow ones before you showed up…"

"Ohoho," Ella grinned wickedly, "and why aren't you in bed, Mister?"

He wrinkled his nose at here. "I'm busy. Anyway, I'm just going to take a blood sample and then I'll get out of your hair again."

"You're busy?" she repeated. "Last I checked, you don't take excuses!" He walked out of the room without replying. She was settling into a moody silence when he came back with a needle, and the reality of his words hit her. "Oh, ew! No, no…"

He grinned and sat down on the side of the bed again as he prepared the needle. "Are you getting some sort of sadistic joy out of this?" demanded the farmer.

"You ask a lot of questions," he replied, swabbing her inner elbow. She flinched away. "Hey, this is for your own good, alright? Behave and I won't charge you."

"_Charge _me?" she exclaimed. "Did I _ask _you to bring me here?" He momentarily stopped swabbing to look up at her, and she immediately felt stupid. She wriggled uncomfortably and allowed him to finish cleaning.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded slowly, inhaled deeply and stared, in transfixed horror, as the needle slowly drew closer to her vein. "Don't look and it'll be easier, Miss Kelley." She kicked him lightly. "Ella."

The farmer complied and fixed her gaze on a curtain that she decided was very interesting, and did her best to ignore the piercing sensation in her arm. It was such an awful feeling that she felt her hands ball into fists and her toes curl in containing her discomfort.

After a thousand forevers passed, Trent's voice interrupted her analysis of the curtain. "Okay, you're fine now." She looked down at her elbow where a bright lime-green Band-Aid was stuck over the puncture, and nodded slowly. Neither of them moved. "Um, you can probably remove your talons from my arm now. Or whenever you're ready…"

She jolted, and realized that she'd unintentionally stuck her fingernails into his forearm during the blood withdrawal. "Oh—Goddess, I'm so, so sorry!"

The doctor examined the five red crescent-moon shaped marks on his arm. "It's alright. Just try to get some rest now, okay?"

She settled back against her pillow. "Yeah…I'm really sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Trent stood and grabbed the TV remote from the windowsill before switching the power on. "Sweet dreams…and call Elli if you have to use the washroom, NO getting up out of bed alone, or you might pull out your IV." Placing the remote on a stool by the privacy curtains, he marched out of the room.

Ella stared at the TV. On it, a herd of sheep wandered around a green field as they peacefully grazed on the grass. Nothing happened for a full five minutes. _Why don't they just show grass growing or paint drying? That would be soooo much more interesting…_Ella thought in annoyance. She glanced over to where the remote sat, far out of her reach.

Suddenly, the scene on the screen changed, and she looked back in excitement. The camera zoomed in on a tiny square of soil as shrill, grating music played. After two minutes, Ella could make out a tiny itty-bitty green bud poking out of the earth, and she felt her mouth drop in amazement. _They were showing grass growing. _

She stared in disbelief as over a span of eight minutes, the blade of grass grew to about 2 mm high. They were showing grass growing, and didn't even have the courtesy of speeding it up by 239847856348756347x. No, they had sped it up by maybe 2x. Or maybe not at all. She could feel her IQ dropping by the second, and the remote was starting to look more and more attractive.

So she tried to go to sleep, but the music made the task nigh impossible. She plugged her ears and stuffed her head under the pillow, but she could still hear it. Finally, she decided she'd check in on the sprites on her channeling device, but her hands slipped right past her hips when she reached down for it.

She realized she was wearing a paper gown, and her clothes and belongings—_the sprite channels_—were elsewhere. What if ELLI found it? What if TRENT snooped through it?

Ella threw the covers off and struggled out of bed, grabbing the stand that held her IV bag, and wheeled it out towards the curtain's opening. Then, like a ninja, she peeked out around the curtain to check the lobby.

Elli sat behind the counter, filling out forms or some other boring administrative work. The farmer gingerly pushed the stand forward, and it unleashed a loud rattling sound.

She grit her teeth. _He probably gave me the most rickety one ON PURPOSE. _ Studying the offending needle in her hand, she decided that pulling the thing out was probably a bad idea. Probably.

Ella grabbed the stem of the stand with both hands, and testing lifting it. It was fairly light, but she was so _weak_... Despite that, she carefully lifted the stand and started padding quietly through the lobby in her bare feet. That's when she heard Elli's voice.

She froze, mid-step, and tried desperately to come up with an excuse—until she realized what Elli was really doing.

Accompanied by tinny metal music, Elli was tapping her pen on the counter and singing along in a sweet voice to some raspy screamo band blaring so loudly from her earbuds that Ella could kind of make out what they were singing about…some murder or something.

Ella's mouth fell open slightly. Elli liked screamo music?

Without spending more precious time standing there pushing her luck, she sped across the cold tile floor until she reached the inlet housing the stairs at the far side. She looked around the wall to back behind Elli, where she assumed she'd find the pile of laundry.

But nothing was there except some empty medicinal bottles that Elli was probably supposed to have cleaned up.

Ella put the stand down to rest her aching arms and puzzled over it. Okay…an unconscious patient is rushed in and needs to quickly be changed into a paper gown. Trent would have handed the clothes change over to Elli (or so Ella HOPED!) and then…done what with them?

The idea of the device's design was to make it look like a pedometer, so Elli likely wouldn't have cared a lick about it. Trent, on the other hand…

A sinking feeling developed in her stomach the more she thought about it. And if he were sick too, he wouldn't have sat around downstairs…he'd probably have taken everything up to his room to recover…and to examine in the meantime.

She let out a loud groan, aware that Elli couldn't hear her. Grudgingly, she picked up the stupid stand again and started making her painstaking way upstairs.

TEN MINUTES LATER

Ella plunked the stand down with a dull _thud _and sat on the top of the stairs, panting. Everything hurt, and her heart was pounding with exertion. What she wouldn't give for a nice strawberry ice cream…

Her ears pricked up when she heard Elli sigh from downstairs, as well as the loud slap of a book being shut. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed with all her might that Elli didn't decide it now would be a dandy time to check up on the patient.

Now more than ever, she was determined to get her sprite PDA back. With renewed energy she hauled the stand down the hallway, peeking into rooms as she went. The first room, with powder blue décor, was obviously a bathroom. The second one had a securely shut door that creaked open slightly when she pressed the handle. Terrified, she skipped it and hurried along to the last one, whose door was wide open.

It exposed a light pink room with a white cot overflowing with teddies. Picture frames lay sprawled on the table and one…which was quite large…was a close-up of Trent, looking surprised but not yet grouchy. He probably was after he figured out she'd just taken his picture. The frame had a small pink heart in the upper left corner.

Ella let out a small giggle. Aww, Elli had a crush on Trent! How cute was that? She wanted to stay and snoop around for more evidence, but she realized that would be pushing her luck again. With a small regretful sigh, she wheeled the stand out of the room and walked back towards the closed door.

It was still slightly ajar, and she pressed her head close to the opening. It was completely silent…except for a slight inhale that she could pick up every few seconds.

She pushed the door open again, praying that the door wouldn't creak. Luckily, it didn't, and she cautiously made her way inside.

The room was a dark blue. She expected everything to be immaculate and systematically organized, but it wasn't—books and clothes lay sprawled everywhere, and underneath a plant was a small pile of soil that hadn't been cleaned up yet.

The room didn't reek of medicine, either, which also surprised her. It smelled faintly of…cologne, actually. A tasteful leather couch sat opposite an equally tasteful glass table, and in the corner was his bed.

He was curled up in it, his hair and clothes crumpled and his hand dangling off the side. She breathed a sigh of relief—he was deeply asleep.

Now, to business. Ella picked up clothes and went through the pockets, carefully placing them back on the ground the way they had been. (She was surprised to find he owned more than just white collared shirts, dress pants and lab coats—she even discovered a pair of jeans! She did not, however, find a hairbrush.) At one point, she found 2000G just sitting crumpled in a pocket.

She sifted through book pages, pockets…she emptied desk drawers and stuck her hands under the couch's cushions, but she could NOT find any trace of her sprite channeler. She was frustrated enough to the point that she was literally wheeling her squeaky stand all around the carpeted floor despite the fact that the jostling added additionally noise. She was half hoping he _would _wake up, so she could aim the stand menacingly at him and demand the PDA back.

But all that melted away in fear when he snorted lightly, and rolled over. She held very still. His grip loosened, and out of his fist fell…the PDA!

Her heart skipped a beat. He'd been holding it the whole time, hiding it in plain sight. Cautiously, she carried the stand over and knelt beside the mattress. Reaching for the channeler, she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

As soon as she had it in her hand, she was so excited and flush with victory that she shot upright hurriedly, brushing his hanging hand in her carelessness. Before she knew it, she was staring ahead into two large dark eyes that were staring straight back at her.

Ella didn't wait around for his reaction. She bolted right away, clutching the PDA to her chest and suddenly very aware of her potentially exposed butt.

"H-Hey!" he shouted. "You…"

"I'm leaving right now! Go back to sleep!" she shrieked back, over her shoulder. Too little too late—he tore the covers off the bed and ran after her. Luckily for her, he tripped over a pile of his own clothes and faceplanted into the carpet.

"HAHAHA!" Ella laughed maniacally. She was at the threshold of the top of the stairs when he tackled her.

Panicked, she flailed her IV stand around, striking him heavily on the forehead. He fell backwards, and she, now unsupported, fell halfway down the stairs with a loud and unceremonious crash.

"What was that?" Elli yelled from downstairs. "Trent, what have you done this time?"

"ELLA HIT ME WITH—OHMYGAWDESS, THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE!"

"WHAAAAT?" the nurse shrieked, racing towards the stairs.

"MY FREAKIN' IV!" Ella wailed, staring at the needle lying on the stair and the messy puncture on her hand.

Elli raced up the stairs, took one look at the mess, and tore off the bottom inch of Ella's paper gown to staunch it. "How did you…?" she began, then became distracted by Trent's motionless figure still lying at the top of the stairs. "DID YOU KILL HIM?"

She took the stairs three at a time—remarkable in a dress—and knelt by his side, cradling his head in her lap. "Trent! SPEAK TO ME!"

"I'M OKAY!" he yelled back, massaging his head. "Seriously." He rolled his head away from her lap and began to sit up. By now, a red mark the width of an IV stand stem was becoming obvious on his forehead.

"Aaw, Trent," Elli cooed. "Wait right here, I'll get you some gauze…"

"Nononooouu…" he slurred, shaking his head. "She's the one bleeding…I'm…I'm okay."

Elli looked at him doubtfully. "Are you sure?"

"I probly just have a consushun."

"What, dear?"

"Con..percussion. Concushion?"

"Concussion?" Elli prompted.

"Oh…do I?" Trent asked dreamily. "Hrmmmnnm. That would explain a lot I guess."

"Ooookay, big guy," Elli said, convinced he did. "Let's get you downstairs." She looped her arms under his and began to drag him downstairs.

"Um—" Ella began, but she was too late. Trent went crashing all the way down the stairs and landed heavily at the bottom. He groaned softly.

Elli paled. "GODDESS, ARE YOU OKAY?"

Ella grabbed her stand and made her way slowly downstairs, forcing the erratic Elli to wait behind her. When she got to the bottom, she said, "Elli, how about I take his legs and we both bring him in?"

The nurse wrung her hands fretfully. "Yeah…yeah. Watch his head…"

They hauled him, step by step, into the patient room and placed him onto the bed opposite Ella's. There, he hugged the hard pillow and murmured, "This is nice…thank you…"

Ella grinned. "I like him better like this," she declared. "I should knock him out more often!" The nurse gave her a wilting glare. "I was just kidding," she added softly. Elli harrumphed and turned on her heel, heading back out again.

"I'm getting some medicine for his head. He told me to help you, but you seem to be pretty capable on your own. I trust you don't need any assistance getting into bed?" she asked icily.

"I'm fine, thank you," Ella said quietly. "And…I'm sorry!"

Elli stalked away. Standing over his bed, Ella stared down at him. Well, he definitely seemed less grouchy unconscious anyway. "I'm sorry," she repeated to him, even though she doubted he could hear her. Even though he _did _steal her PDA.

She clambered back into bed ignoring her guilt, and smiled down at her trophy. At least she'd won one battle.

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**A/N: Soo, hoped you liked it. I intended for it to be more than just a clinical scene, but I kinda got caught up in it. Alas. So anyway…my usual speech…Please feel free to review 3 **


	12. Desert Rose

**A/N: So, here's lucky chapter 13. Enjoy C:**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or anything. Except Ella, kind of. Her personality anyway.**

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Ella wrung the white washcloth out into the sink and padded back into the recovery room, where she plunked down on the barstool beside Trent's bed. There, she smoothed the cloth over his forehead and sat back with a sigh.

It was kind of boring, taking care of a knocked-out patient. But she was willing to do anything to get back on Elli's good side. The mild-mannered, sweet nurse was downright scary when she was mad…

_Speak of the devil. _Elli poked her head into where Ella sat with the doctor. "How's he doing?"

"No better or worse than five minutes ago, Elli."

"Oh, you got him a washcloth. Good. That should help him." The nurse turned and walked away again, still wringing her hands fretfully.

Ella exhaled, blowing her fair bangs astray across her face. She was just slouching into a state of mindless boredom again when a small startled snort from below caught her attention.

She glanced down. Trent, eyes squeezed shut, was feeling the wet cloth on his forehead. Suddenly, his hand froze and his shoulders tensed—and in one swift action he sat bolt upright and flung the cloth away to the floor. Ella blinked. He sat and looked at the sad little pile of washcloth on the floor with a sort of dazed expression.

She leaned forward. "Sure showed that washcloth who's boss, huh?"

Slowly, he turned and looked at her. She watched as his eyes slowly focused. "You hit me with an IV stand."

Ella bit her lip and stared back. "Yeah. By accident. After you purposefully tackled me. But I'm really sorry."

He looked confused. "I did?"

"Yeah..?"

"What? Why?"

He didn't remember _anything_? Well, that was annoying—or maybe not. "Good question," she replied evilly. "All I did was retrieve something you stole from me."

"I stole someth—?" he began, then stopped short. His brow furrowed. "Oh, right. That stupid thing."

"Aha! You admit you stole it," Ella said smugly.

"No, I borrowed it for scientific investigation…"

"Well, whatever you want to call it then," the farmer grinned. "So uhm…how are you feeling?"

"What? Oh." He rubbed his forehead. "Just wonderful, thanks very much." He started to get out of bed, but Ella grabbed his sleeve and anchored him down.

"Noooo," she said. "Elli will literally kill me if I let you get away."

Trent looked at her over his shoulder, eyebrows raised. "Elli couldn't kill a plant if she deprived it of water for a year. And," he added teasingly, eyeing her fists restraining him, "I'm stronger than you, so there's no use trying to hold me back."

"Oh, really?" Ella taunted. "Do you think you're stronger than a cow?"

"I—what?"

She readjusted her position so one hand was on his arm and the other was latched onto his pajama collar. "I can hold back hungry mama cows from the pasture. I _defy_ you to escape from me."

"Do I smell a challenge?" Trent asked. His head was turned, but she could hear a small smile in his voice.

"No. You just need to take a shower," Ella replied wickedly.

"Oooh, I see how it is. It's _on._"

She couldn't resist teasing him some more. "Are you sure? I mean, you can't even stand up to an IV stand. I don't want to embarrass you too much."

He took her by surprise by hauling himself to his feet at that moment, dragging her off the stool in the process. "Oh, don't worry about me…" She landed on the floor and dug her heels into the tile, straining with all her might. "…it's you who will probably end up embarrassed, Princess."

"NO! Get back to bed!" He kept right on going. She grabbed both arms and tried hauling him back the other way, and when that failed, she resorted to beating on his back in rhythm to her words. "GO. BACK. TO. YOUR. COT. THIS. INSTANT. YOUNG. MAN!"

Trent stopped to cough then, and finally Ella started making some actual progress dragging him back…partly because he stumbled over the bunny slippers that Elli had provided for him. "Where were you even _going_?"

But he never got around to answering her question, because the clinic's threshold bell tinkled as the door opened and two people walked inside. The four people in the foyer froze.

Tess' breath caught in her throat. She stared right past the doctor at her daughter—who looked older, more tanned, leaner—and burst into tears. "Eleanor, baby!"

Ella dropped Trent's arm and went running towards her parents. "Mom, Dad!"

Cliff intercepted his wife and scooped Ella up like a little girl, whirling her around. When he placed her on the floor again, Tess jumped in and they shared one big group hug, laughing all the way.

"Sweetheart—sweetheart, I missed you so much—lemme look at you, oh, you look so grown up…look at her, Cliff…"

"You're doing alright, hon?" Cliff asked his daughter gently.

She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes, and buried herself in another hug."Augh, I missed you guys so much!"

"Honey, how are you feeling?" gushed Tess.

Cliff looked up, smiling, and met Trent's eyes. "Afternoon, doctor. Is she healthy enough to take home?"

Trent was leaning against the metal frame of the privacy curtains. He ran a hand through his hair pensively before answering, "Yeah, she should be fine. All the toxins should be flushed from her body now. If she still gets dizzy or lightheaded, she should just rest for a bit, but it won't be serious."

"We can't thank you enough," Tess laughed. "Getting lost in the forest and poisoning herself…Ella, my dear, who else?"

"That's our girl." Cliff rooted around in his pockets for a wad of cash, which he offered to the doctor. "Here you are, sir. Thanks again."

"Oh, no, thank you sir, but that won't be necessary." Cliff looked at the money and back at Trent again.

"Are you sure? I know those blood tests cost—"

"No, don't worry about it, Mr. Kelley, it's been taken care of," Trent insisted.

Elli popped down from the stairs landing with a big smile. "Hi, Kelley clan! Consider it a birthday present from us to you, Ella!"

"Oh! Right!" Tess cried suddenly, and turned to her daughter. "We started organizing a big birthday bash for you when we heard you were in the clinic here, Ella! We've already invited everyone, and—"

"Big?" Ella whimpered. Tess faltered.

"Well—no, a small gathering of…family…and…friends…at Doug's…"

"Yeah. Big," Ella sighed.

"Only as big as it gets in Mineral Town," Cliff joked.

"Well—okay. Hey…do you two want to come?" Ella asked the doctor and nurse. The two exchanged glances.

"I'd LOVE to!" Elli burst out excitedly. "What can we get for you?"

"Nothing!" she laughed. "You guys saved my life, I think that's good enough. I just want you to come." Trent didn't reply. "Uhm…Trent, are you going to come?"

"I….don't know…."

"Aaw, come on, it'll be fun," Elli pleaded. "Why don't you want to? Are you shy?"

"Maybe he's afraid I'll give him another concussion," Ella teased, earning bizarre looks from her parents. "And…that is a story for another day, I'm afraid…"

"Psh, I'll protect you," Elli laughed, linking their arms. He rolled his eyes.

"Alright, _alright_!"

"Great," Ella grinned. "It won't be too bad, I promise."

"It's at 6:30 tonight," Cliff added.

"Okay~!" Elli said sunnily. "We'll be there! Bye now!"

"Bye! Thanks so much!"

Arms all linked together, the Kelley family squeezed out through the clinic door and began to meander home.

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"Hey, Mom? Have you seen my butterfly necklace?" Ella called from the bathroom, where she'd just taken a long relaxing bath.

"Yes, it's on my dresser," Tess called back. "Sorry, I wore it on our anniversary a few days ago."

"Oh, no problem. Did you get my card?"

"Mhmm. It was lovely, thank you!"

Ella walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, and picked up the coral-pink pendant. "Do you think my print sundress would look okay with this?"

"The pastel pink one?"

"Yeah."

"Mhmm, it would. I'm going to wear my green halter top."

"Aw, that's so cute! What are you wearing, Dad?" Ella asked wickedly.

Cliff glanced up from his newspaper. "Clothes."

"Oh, really? That's a relief."

Tess snickered.

Ella pulled her dress on, then shook her hair out and let it settle in its natural waviness over her shoulder. She tilted her head to one side and examined the look in her mirror. "I'm feeling lazy. Does this look alright?"

"It's your birthday," Tess laughed. "Do whatever you like. But of course you look beautiful."

"Eh, that's what I get for asking my mom," Ella joked. "But thanks. It should do." She plopped herself down beside her dad, and started reading the newspaper over his shoulder. "Hurry up, Mumzie."

"Yes, yes." Tess twisted her hair up. "There. Well ladies and gents, I think I'm ready to go."

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It was twenty after 6, and most of the guests were already there. Ella had been cried over and almost squashed to death more times than she could count, but it was still a good feeling to be back in her hometown, with the people she loved the most.

Sitting at a table filled by friends, Kai was recounting his heroic tale of escaping the Forest Near Gotz's House with sole company of Ella's little dog, and no help from the illustrious doctor.

"So, after he showed up, I went looking for you on my own 'cause he was just sitting there like a lump, thinking you were going to come back on your own."

"I was—"

"…yet you weren't there yet! So, River faithfully took my side and we went out looking for you ourselves. It was actually totally boring. There weren't any bears—"

"You _thought _you ran into a bear, though," Popuri giggled.

Kai rolled his eyes. "Whatever! It was just Gotz. And boy, was he peeved. Apparently I dug up his daisy patch or something."

Ella raised an eyebrow. "Why were you digging around in a daisy patch?"

"Gotz has a daisy patch?" Karen asked in surprise, running her finger over the lip of her wine glass.

Kai turned to her. "I know! Who'da thunk it?" He turned back to Ella. "And for your information, I was hungry. Boy scouts told me: when one is lost and alone in the forest, one must forage for roots to survive."

Ella rested her head on her hand, amused. "But I was getting food."

"Yeah," snorted Kai. "Poisonous food. You were trying to kill me. By the way, don't you think it's weird Doc showed up when he did?"

She shrugged. "Not really. I'm just glad he did."

Kai glared. "Yeah, well, what about me? I was with you the whole time, and I was looking out for you! I got lost because of my concern!"

"Hehe, that'll learn you to be worried about me again, hm?" Ella teased. She was soon distracted by the door opening again. "Hey, speak of the devil, here they are."

"You invited him?" Kai asked, surprised.

She looked back at him, equally surprised. "Uhm, yeah?"

"Aww, they got all dolled up," Popuri cooed.

She was right. Elli was wearing a light green, strapless dress and a little white cardigan; Trent was wearing a royal blue collared shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and—big surprise—creased dress pants. Elli looked thrilled and the doctor looked uncomfortable.

"Hey, he looks kinda cute," Karen murmured. Rick's eyes narrowed.

Ella stood up and waved. "Hi, guys! Welcome!" She waved them over to her table, and everyone shifted down on the benches to make room for two more bodies.

"Hey, man," Kai greeted, punching Trent lightly on the shoulder.

"Your hair looks soooooo cute, Elli!" Popuri giggled.

"Didn't you bring presents?" Karen asked.

"I told them not to," Ella cut in quickly. "The clinical treatment was on them—so—that's more than I could ask for."

Karen settled back into her chair and took a sip of wine.

"Well!" Kai exclaimed, clapping his hands and rubbing them together eagerly. "Let's get this party started!"

"Right," Ella said. She surveyed the crowd and mentally calculated. "I think everyone's here…"

"Is Gotz coming?" asked Karen.

"Yeah, he's sitting over there."

"Okay." Ella clinked her crystal wine glass with her spoon and raised her voice. "Um, could I get everyone's attention please?" Almost immediately, the noise died down and the room fell silent. She shifted under the attention. "So…I'm really happy that everyone could make it tonight, thanks very much for coming! I know we'll definitely enjoy the meal—" She glanced over at the eager redhead behind the counter. "—and I hope you enjoy the party just as much. It's really flattering that you all turned out for my birthday, so thank you again! And without further ado…um…bring on the food?"

"That's what I'm talking about!" cackled Ann as she walked out from behind the bar, balancing two giant platters of food. "Let's EAT!" She circulated the dining room and distributed the mega platters table to table.

The murmur of conversation steadily rose again as the guests received and wolfed down their meals.

"So anyway," Popuri purred, resting her head in her hands as she leaned towards Kai, "you were telling your story about braving the forest and returning to Mineral Town?"

At the far end of the table, Trent started and nearly spilt his drink on himself. Kai's eyes flitted nervously from the doctor to Popuri. "Uh, yeah, um, we just um…followed Gotz back out and stuff and everything was good." He stuffed his face with food, as if to keep Popuri's protests at bay.

An impish grin began to form on Ella's lips. "Really?"

Kai nodded hastily.

Ella sat back on her bench. "Hrm. That's awful boring."

"Aaw, he's just being modest. Come on, finish the story!" Popuri prodded with a laugh.

"Woman, I'm eating!"

Ella glanced down the table to check how her newest guests were doing. Trent picked idly at his food while Elli inhaled everything on her plate and then eyed his wistfully. How could such a tiny woman _eat _so much?

"Well," Kai said, interrupting her thoughts as he dabbed his mouth daintily with a napkin. "What's a party without some dancing? Who wants to dance with me?" Popuri's arm shot up, and Rick scowled. "How about the birthday girl?"

"Kai," Ella laughed, "give everyone else some time to eat their fill. We're not all starving wolves like you are."

"No, no, I want to dance!" Popuri insisted as she clambered over the bench, clutching Kai's arm. Her dusty pink sundress caught the chandelier's light and glittered alluringly.

"Erm…don't'cha think Birthday Girl should get the first dance?" Kai asked feebly as Rick's eyes bored menacingly into his skull. "I—I mean…it's only right, man…"

The farmer smothered her laugh. "Stop making excuses, Kai! We want dinner and a show!"A chorus of laughter and agreement followed. Kai sighed resignedly and followed Popuri to the dance floor. Ann jumped up and ran behind the counter to switch on the speakers and sound system.

For a long time, Popuri and Kai stood in the centre of the wooden dining room, staring at each other, as Ann fought with the sound. It wasn't turning on. She kicked a speaker in frustration, and it fell over with a great deal of ceremony and static feedback. The guests were deaf for about ten seconds afterwards.

Finally, a very drunk Duke stood up on a bench, holding out his half-empty glass of wine as if to toast the world, and began humming "Amazing Grace". Gradually, person by person, the guests began to follow his tune. Soon the entire room was buzzing with a wordless, heartfelt rendition of the classic song, and Kai and Popuri had no choice but to link hands and start dancing.

It was pretty sweet, although it was creepy how Popuri beamed up at him the entire time, and their moving was awkward. Ella turned to say something to Karen when she realized that Rick was leading her to the dance floor, while Gray and Mary were hanging around by the bar, pretending they didn't want to dance.

Elli and Trent slid down the table to sit closer to Ella, and the nurse wedged herself securely in between them. "How cute is that?"

"Aw, thanks for coming!" Ella hugged her. "I'll have to hug Trent later, he's dodging me for now. Why don't you two go up and dance?"

"What a _fantabulous _idea," Elli said to the doctor, as if she could convince him that it was. Just then, the speakers crackled to ear-splitting life amid more feedback, and a lively, bubbly tune overrode the humming. The slow dancers split up and began to jump all over the place, screaming excitedly. "I LOVE THIS SONG!" Elli shrieked.

Karen, Rick, Kai, Popuri, Mary and Gray all piled over to where the three of them were sitting and hauled them from their seats, linking hands, and spun around in a giant circle to the music. Adults started getting up then too, twirling with their spouses or dancing in circles.

Ella found herself now in between Trent and Elli, desperately trying not to lose their hands in the tug-of-war chain. "I feel like we're doing some tribal dance or something!" Ella roared above the music.

"I know!" Ann yelled back. "Isn't it great?"

"I HAVE SO MUCH FREAKIN' ADRENALINE!" yelled Kai. "DUUUUUDE THERE'S PUNCH!"

Karen hurried to stop him. "Don't—don't drink any, you'll be sooo out of it!" Ella nearly doubled over in breathless laughter.

"It's not alcoholic!"

"Whaat?"

"I want to slow dance again!" Karen emptied her fourth glass of wine and broke from the circle to walk, slightly unsteadily, to the stereo. The chain kind of collapsed into itself without her as the opposite sides stumbled towards each other. As she tried to regain her balance, Ella ended up tripping over Trent's feet and fell to the floor –bringing him down with her. He hastily pulled himself to his feet, and offered her a hand. The music started again as soon as she was on her feet, looking up at him, about to apologize, while he still had her hand.

A little thrill went through her body as she looked at him, looking back at her. Their eyes met, and for some reason, a light blush rose on her cheeks. She could feel the warmth, and immediately dropped her eyes to stare at her feet.

"Aw, you guys," Ann said impishly as she walked up to them. She put her arms around both their shoulders casually and added, "I believe you have to dance now."

"What?" both Trent and Ella stammered in unison. The blonde added, "Well, you'd be wrong then!"

The fiery-haired waitress shook her head smugly. "Nope. Whatever couple ends up together at the end of the all-participants dance have to stick together for the slow song."

"Not if our feet are killing us," Ella declared.

"Or if the person the party is celebrating doesn't want to," Trent added.

"Ella," Ann began severely, "do not complain about your feet. I _saw_ you remove the heels from those strappy sandals, honey."

"It seemed like a good excuse," grumbled her friend.

"Now, you don't want to offend your beau," Ann giggled. "Don't be rude."

"I won't be offended!" Trent persisted.

Ann pushed them together. "Yes you will. You will be forever scarred. Now _dance_."

Trent glared at her reproachfully as she stalked away. "Uhm," Ella began, "look, you don't have to take her seriously…she just likes to meddle. We can go sit down if you want…Or…I mean, you can, I don't have to come with you either."

His grip on her hand tightened. "No, it's fine. It would just make a scene. I mean, unless you really want to go sit down…"

"No," she answered, a little too quickly. "I mean—I mean, it's not a big deal."

He smirked a little. "You 'mean' a lot."

There was a brief, awkward pause before they both spoke at once.

"I didn't mean—"

"I know you meant—"

"I mean—the word—"

"Yeah."

Ella exhaled so that her bangs were blown astray. Then, she stepped squarely on Trent's foot. "Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry!"

He grinned a little bit. "No, it's fine. Don't worry. I've had far worse dance partners."

She tilted her head to the side. "Have you? Well, you're lucky I took the heel off these sandals, or else there might've been a permanent landmark where I stepped. Where have you had these infamous dance partners?"

He shrugged offhandedly. "My parents used to throw a lot of parties. Nothing special."

"Oh. Well, you didn't let them mar you, I guess. I didn't know you danced."

"You're not too bad yourself, Princess."

Ella's heart skipped a beat. "A nickname? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have."

"Ayup. Happy birthday." She didn't look at him, but she could hear the smile in his voice. Ella reached out and gently twisted a curl on Karen's head as she and Gray twirled by, and the brunette turned around with a wink.

Someone cut the music short, and Ella collided with the doctor for the second time. Luckily, this time they didn't go crashing to the floor. "Are you going to make a hobby out of this, Princess?"

Ella stretched. "Hopefully not, I have way better things to be doing than finding you to crash into all the time."

"I doubt that," Trent replied teasingly.

"Then you might have to make it easier for me, hmm? Quit dodging all the time!"

"Shhh!" hissed Karen from in front of them, before pointing to the front. Before the counter stood Tess, holding a basket of candles.

"Thank you, everyone. Doug and I were just talking, and we were thinking…it's such a beautiful night that it would be a shame to spend it partying indoors. We'd like to move the party to the beach. How's that sound to everyone?"

Cheers and applause greeted the idea. Cliff beamed. "Great! So, would everyone please grab a blanket from their home, and we'll meet at the beach as soon as possible? Don't worry, food and drink will be provided. Okay, see you there!"

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Trent sat on his bed and rubbed his forehead. He could hear Elli clattering through her closet in the next room, searching for the fluffiest and laciest blanket she had, probably. Supposedly he was looking for a decent beach blanket too, but instead he was stressing over what to give Ella.

He knew she told him and Elli not to bring anything for her—which was a relief at the time, because they had nothing—but now he _wanted _to give her something.

Half-heartedly, he looked around his room. Used, thumbed-paged books, rumpled clothing, and loose papers greeted him. Definitely nothing good enough to give away. If only he had a stash of random necklaces or earrings as emergency girl-gifts…

But he didn't, so he was going to make do. She was a farmer. So she liked plants, right? Trent focused on his flowering cactus with interest. The blooms were pink and delicate, and the cactus itself wouldn't get very big. Especially if he just gave her her own cutting of it to grow…

Quickly, he tore through dressers drawers in search of pruning scissors, which he ended up finding neatly organized in his toolkit (which was against the balance of nature). Quickly, he trimmed off a healthy-looking offspring growth from the cactus, grabbed a handful of soil, and quickly potted the cutting in a light blue teacup. He set it on his glass table and looked it over appraisingly.

Well, it was a unique gift, that was for sure. But the cactus was healthy, easy to take care of, and pretty to look at; the teacup was temporary. Maybe someone would give her a nice pot to keep it in, who knew?

He smiled slightly, convincing himself it was a good gift, and hurried it downstairs where he wrapped it in wide gauze bandage and tied it with the cord off the box of a recent supplies delivery. When Elli came bouncing down the stairs, he quickly hid it in the folds of his hoodie.

Elli looked him over. "What're you bringing that for?"

"Uhhh…in case the beach gets cold at night."

"You're never cold!"

"I might be…"

"Uh-huh…okay. Where's your blanket?"

"What?"

"Your blanket—what you're bringing to sit on?"

"Oh—I guess I left it upstairs."

"Trent," Elli laughed, "What were you _doing _this whole time?"

"Just…checking stuff over."

"Well…" she began shyly, "You can sit on mine if you'd like."

"It's fine, thanks," he replied, squeezing in between her and the desk and heading for the stairs. "I'll just go get one now."

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Ella unstrapped her sandals and tossed them beside her parents' beach blanket, grinding her bare feet in the sand. It was such a beautiful warm night.

Kai and Ann came out from his surf shop dragging a long extension cord, which they plugged into the Inn's sound system again. "Yay! Dancing!" Popuri bounced up and down, clapping her hands.

"On the beach," Kai added with a wink. "Zee perfeect romanteek atmosphere, no?"

Ella laughed. "You do a terrible French accent."

"When can we do presents?" Popuri asked as she danced by.

"Oh! Right!" Karen said. "EVERYBODY, SIT DOWN ON YOUR BLANKETS! WE'RE DOING PRESENTS!"

Elli dragged her blanket closer to Trent's. "Yay, presents! I kind of feel bad we didn't bring anything, though."

Kai delivered an armful of gifts to Ella, who sat cross-legged under an umbrella. "Open mine first!"

Trent looked over the pile of shining, beautifully wrapped gifts, and tensely and self-consciously squeezed his present. "_Ouch!_"

Elli glanced at him in alarm. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

They were both soon distracted by Ella opening up a glittering bracelet of pink diamonds, the first of many expensive presents. Trent's confidence fell further, and he tucked the gift away into his pocket.

Night fell, and a giant bonfire in the middle of the beach was lit. It cast a warm glow on the partiers. Ella excused herself from the picnic table near Kai's shop and trotted down the beach and up the stairs to Rose Square.

The beautifully kept gardens were shrouded in darkness, and if she squinted, she could make out the flagstones of the pavement. She breathed the still night air in deeply, toying with a fluffy pink bunny she'd received from Popuri and staring up at the starry sky.

The entire day had been crowded and noisy, so it was nice to finally get some time to herself. She stood up in the middle of the square and stargazed.

Her eyes glued to the night sky, she began wandering a little, trying to get a view of the sky unblocked by tree limbs and lampposts. It worked well for several seconds until she bumped into another lone stargazer.

"Oh—sorry, I didn't see you there!" she said hastily, squinting through the night to identify the person.

"I'm not surprised," came the quiet, playful reply in Trent's voice. Ella laughed.

"Of _course _it's you. Now I'll never be able to convince you I have other hobbies."

"On the bright side, I'm getting used to it."

"Mmmm." They were quiet until Ella's curiosity broke the silence. "Why aren't you at the party?"

"Why aren't _you_ at the party?" Trent shot back.

She half-shrugged. "I got tired of all the fawning attention, and I'm kind of worried about something."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Answer my question first!"

The doctor scuffed his shoe uncomfortably against the flagstones. "I don't know. I'm just not big into parties."

"That's fair," Ella replied thoughtfully.

"Soo…you liked your presents, huh?"

She self-consciously brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, her bracelet glittering and her grip tightening on the bunny. "They were…lovely. But I feel awful about the jewelry. I don't feel that anybody should spend that much money on me, especially when they're also my age."

"Well, I guess he—they—must have really wanted to," Trent replied evenly.

"Yeah…"

Trent stuffed his hands in his pockets, lightly fingering the cactus. "So what was on your mind? If you want to talk about it."

Ella hugged the bunny tightly to her chest. "It's just—the whole reason I came here was kind of because a hurricane was going to hit Forget-Me-Not around this time, and I chickened out. But I'm worried about the people, and my farm, and my animals…." At the last thought, she buried her face in the bunny's plushy coat. "I was going to go see the Harvest Goddess about it…but it might be too late." The words came out muffled by the stuffed animal.

"Well, it won't hurt to try," he said gently. "What's the worst that could happen? Besides, you can't help being late. You were out cold in the hospital for most of the time."

She rested her chin on the bunny's head and looked at him with clear blue eyes. "Will you come with me?"

He was taken aback. "Wha—me? Why?"

Ella lowered her eyes. "It's okay if you don't want to. If anybody asks where I am, just tell them I'll be right back, okay?" With that, she turned around and started walking towards the south exit of Rose Square.

Trent stared at her, then finally snapped out of his surprise. He jogged briskly to catch up to her. "Hey…I guess I better come in case the next person you bump into is less friendly."

Ella cuddled her bunny and looked straight ahead, a small smile curling on her lips.

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It was pretty late by the time they reached the Goddess pond. Luckily, the moonlight reflected on the pool gave Trent and Ella some indication of their surroundings, and Ella was able to find a Pinkcat Flower to throw in.

She held her breath. "Here goes nothing." Quickly, she tossed the bloom onto the pond's surface, and they watched it slowly fade away. Trent shifted his weight from foot to foot.

A small summer breeze mussed their hair, accompanied by a lilting female voice. "Ta-da! Ahh, both of you now? What a pleasant surprise."

"Good evening, Harvest Goddess," Ella breathed in relief. "Um, I came to ask a little favour of you, if you'll allow it…"

"You know I don't pick favourites, Eleanor."

"I know, but I just wanted to ask you to please let the hurricane take it easy on Mineral Town today and tomorrow. I'm really worried about it, and it would make it a lot faster to rescue you if I didn't have to restart my ranch from square one again…"

"Hrm." The Harvest Goddess didn't sound impressed. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do. You know I'm weaker than I usually am," she finished in a whiny voice.

"I know," Ella sighed. "Thank you so much. I hope you liked your gift."

"Yes, yes yes yes!" the Goddess giggled. "The world would be a perfect place if everyone was like you, Eleanor. Well anyway…goodbye now! And oh, happy birthday…" she added as an afterthought, her voice fading to silence.

Trent and Elli stood on the bank for a long time, staring at the moon's reflection. "Huh," the doctor finally murmured. "That wasn't very inspiring."

Ella yawned widely. "No…Guess we better get back to the party then..."

"Yeah…or you to bed. It's not healthy to stay up late all the time."

"Speak for yourself," Ella replied through another yawn. Her hand on his arm for support, they started to head back for the beach.

Just as they got out to Gotz's property, Trent stopped again. "Wait."

Ella became half-alert. "What..? Do you hear something?"

"No, I just want to give something to you before I—" he stopped himself short, about to say 'before I change my mind again', "—forget." He dug around in his pocket. "_Ow_."

"Are you okay? Wait—Trent…you didn't need to give me anything, you know that, right? I'm the one who owes _you_!"

"Here." He produced the gauze-wrapped bundle and nervously handed it to her.

She took it delicately, almost reverently, and undid the parcel string. The gauze fell apart to reveal the beautiful blooming cactus in its teacup pot. Ella gasped. "Oh!"

The doctor stuck his hands in his pockets again. He knew he shouldn't have even brought it…it wasn't expensive, it wasn't new, it was…

"It's beautiful! Thank you!"

Trent blinked. "What?"

"I love it…I've always wanted a little houseplant, and this one is _so _pretty. Thank you!"

'You're—you're welcome," the doctor stammered, shocked at the response and her brightly lit face. "Well, I guess we'd better head back…"

"But first, here's that hug I owe you." She threw her arms around him, stiff as a board, and hugged him around the torso. Then, wordlessly she grabbed his sleeve again and followed him, admiring the blooming cactus all the way to the beach.

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**A/N: Yeah, I know this one was a little longer than they usually are. Sorry :D. Hope you liked it though, and it would be great if you…pressed the little ol' Review button here. Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	13. Riders on the Storm

**A/N: Kay, um…stayed up late writing this so I hope you like it ;) **

**Also, just wanted to let everyone who's reviewed thus far know that I REALLY appreciate them! Especially the reviewers for chapter 13…I was having a really bad week and you guys really pulled my spirits up. So yeah. Thanks :D *thumbs up***

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon…but ELLA IS MIIIIINE. **

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Checking his watch, Trent grabbed a brush and ran it absent-mindedly through his hair. It was almost 6:00 in the morning. He exited his room and took the stairs down two at a time, jumping over the last three to land at the bottom with a loud _thud_ that woke Elli up.

She rolled over with a groan and checked the time. Her digital clock-radio flashed 5:58 on her bedside table, and she pulled the lace-trim comforter over her eyes with another moan.

"ELLI!" she heard him yell from downstairs. "DO YOU WANT COFFEE?"

Her heart melted. Aaaww. Rolling out of bed, she dragged the comforter with her and walked unsteadily over to the top of the stairs. "Sure, Trent…"

There was a pause. "Oh, wait, you're not usually up for another two hours. Go back to bed, nevermind."

She stifled a yawn. "Nononoouu, it's okaaay…I'll come downstairs with you…"

The smell of percolating coffee rose to where she stood, and she inhaled deeply and appreciatively. "Oh, okay," he called back. She turned to head back to her room to change out of her silk nightie but froze midway when she heard him—_humming? _

She held perfectly still and listened. Sure enough…he was humming to himself as he made coffee down behind the counter. It took all her willpower to hold back her squeal of adoration, and she scurried back to her room as fast as she could. She must have charmed him more last night than she thought~!

Quickly, she pulled on her favourite dusty pink dress and examined herself in the mirror. On second thought, she hiked the hemline up to reveal her ankles. How daring! She blushed at herself and lowered it again. Too soon. Before heading out, she fastened a cute little pink ribbon in her hair, and danced out of the room and down the stairs.

"Morning, Trent~!" she sang out, parking herself behind the desk.

"G'morning," he replied absent-mindedly. She glanced over her shoulder to see him reading an unfolded page with a furrowed brow, an envelope in his other hand.

"What's that?" she asked conversationally.

"Just a letter from the Kelleys," he replied offhandedly. Then, narrowing his eyes, he shook the envelope, and about 5000G fell out into his hand. He groaned.

Elli stood up and poured herself a mug of coffee. "So, hear about the tycoon set to hit Forget-Me-Not sometime this week? Sounds like it's going to be a nasty one."

He froze. "What? I thought it already came and went!"

"Nope," Elli said, and slurped her coffee nonchalantly. "Hardy sent us a letter, but I guess you didn't see it. He says it's going to be particularly rough one, and he might need our help afterwards if it's really ugly." Trent blanched, alarming the nurse. "What's the _matter_?"

Wordlessly he walked over beside her and put the letter down on the table. Elli picked it up and rubbed her eyes blearily before reading it.

_Dear Dr. Trent,_

_Enclosed is approximately how much we owe you for taking care of Ella over the weekend, which we are imposing upon you now because we know you won't accept it otherwise! As well, please give a share to dear Elli for us, and tell her we appreciate her help too!_

_We just want to thank you again personally (or as personally as it gets through a letter) for taking care of her. You truly have our gratitude and trust, and Ella's as well. As well, personal thanks for continuing to monitor her progress over in that Valley. We hope to hear from you again soon!_

_Sincerely and appreciatively, _

_Cliff & Tess Kelley_

_P.S.: Ella says she wants you go out and "mingle" more, whatever that means. We'd make her tell you personally but she left for Forget-Me-Not early this morning. Let's all cross our fingers that she doesn't get the notion to experiment with any more unknown berries!_

"Oh, dear," Elli murmured, very concerned. "She's heading right for the storm…"

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Ella peeked out over her collar at the Valley and braced against the wind as Oakley carried her farther from the mountain pass and through Vesta's farmland. It was dark, 9:00pm at least—but as far as she could see, there was no wreckage from the hurricane that was scheduled to have come on the weekend.

There were also no lights on. Not that that really surprised her…at the very least they lost the power, right? But it was still kind of eerie riding through the dark, quiet valley…it had more the vibe of a ghost-town. She gently nudged Oakley with her heel, and he picked up the pace a little.

As he clopped across the bridge, she could dimly make out the lights of the Inner Inn. Her stomach settled; as silly as it was, it was nice to know she actually _wasn't _the only living soul in the entire valley. She steered Oakley towards her ranch, standing up in the stirrups to get a better view of her barns and coops.

Relief flooded her as she realized they were still intact. Without bothering to stop Oakley, she leapt off his back and went running through her field—whose pineapples and tomatoes were growing strong—to the barn and threw open the doors.

Her cows looked up in surprise. "Faye—Macy—Nikah! My girls!" She ran up to them and hugged them around the necks. "You're all alright!" They nuzzled her briefly, but then settled back down again sleepily. She smiled and patted their backs. "Oh, alright, I get it. You're tired. You'll fawn over me in adoration in the morning, right?"

Nikah lowed as if to shut her up. Ella laughed. "Okay, okay—I can take a hint. But I know you missed me. I see Tak's been feeding you," she noted with approval. "Anyway—I'll be back in the morning. I'm so glad you girls are all right!"

They lowered their heads and curled up again, and Ella walked out the door and down to the coop. Calmer this time, she opened the door and peeked inside. All her hens and chicks were resting peacefully, their heads tucked under their wings. She smiled, closed the door, and jogged back to Oakley.

"Good boy," she murmured to him, patting his nose. He breathed warm air on her face as she grabbed her luggage off his back and tossed it on her doorstep. Clasping the reins, she led him back to the stable and unsaddled him before hugging him around the neck. "Home sweet home. Sleep tight, I'll see you in the morning. Good work today, boy."

He snorted softly and made himself comfortable as she closed the stable door behind her and walked through the now still night to her house.

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It was the whistling wind that woke her up first.

For a while she just lay in bed, clutching her quilt, frozen in fear and praying that what was happening wasn't what she thought it was. It couldn't be. The hurricane was supposed to have already come. She reached for her sprite PDA, but with a sickening déjà vu, her hand slipped past her hip for the second time in as many days.

Cautiously, as if the floor would shatter into pieces if she put too much weight on it, she lowered her feet one by one to the wooden floorboards and stood tentatively up with her quilt wrapped tightly around her. The wood creaked as she slowly made her way across it to the table, which she leaned heavily on for support. Her stomach twisted and untwisted into a thousand knots, and, mirroring it, she wrung a corner of the quilt tensely with both hands.

The entire house groaned then, straining against the force of the wind. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt her heart ramming against her ribcage—_Impossible, impossible impossible impossible _was all she could think. But a large rock shattering unceremoniously through the window by her bed confirmed her worst fear: the hurricane.

Ella fought an overwhelming desire to duck under the table and rock back and forth in the fetal position. The power of the wind rained shards of glass over her, but most of it fell harmlessly off the quilt. She pulled it closer into her and steeled herself for what she knew she had to do.

The house strained again against another strong gust of wind and rain as she heard something big, heavy and wooden splinter. She glanced up and just in time to see a beam give way and part of her roof begin to collapse; nimbly, she dodged the debris. But she knew she didn't have time to stand there and stare at the remains of her roof—she sprang into action, grabbing a chair and running face-first into the gales in her drenched pajamas. She was literally on a deadline.

She aimed herself directly for her barn, but it was easier said than done; she had to fight every step she took against the wind and rain, as well as dodge stones, sticks, saplings and any other debris the storm threw at her.

She squinted straight up at the storm and marveled at the swirling iron-grey cloud masses gathering. The sight also sent icy fingers of fear down her spine, and she felt as though everything inside her had turned to water.

The wind had completely stripped her field of healthy crops, and the stalks of what had been growing were flattened against the earth. She trudged painstakingly over them, her eyes never wavering from the goal. _Almost there. _

Finally, she reached the end of the field where both the barn and the coop had been built, and thanked her past self for building them near each other. With great effort she managed to get to the coop's door, flinching when a branch flew up and caught at her cheek and left a stinging mark. She wrenched the door open and quickly ducked inside.

Not surprisingly, the chickens were all awake and flapping around in a mindless panic. She knew that the build of the coop was not as sturdy as the barn's—she had to get the chickens over to the barn. Quickly, she scooped up two hens and made for the door…and soon realized she couldn't force the door open holding two chickens. Aware her workload had just doubled, she put one down and dislodged the door from the frame.

The chicken—Aza, she thought—flapped and squawked all the way from door to door, resulting in Ella having to stop to control her and the number of grazes and marks on her legs increasing. Finally she got to the barn, stuffed the chicken in an empty milk crate to calm her, and tied the panicking cows to posts above their feeding boxes. Wondering if it would help like it did for horses, she threw her quilt over their heads to block their vision and muffle sound.

Horses!—Oakley was still in the stable! Her head pounded with the implications. She dragged herself out of the barn and headed towards the stable, which was south of the barn—and also in the direction the wind was blowing.

The wind threw her first to the ground, and then practically heaved her up to her feet again. She cried out in pain as her foot caught on an uprooted tree root and the wind wrenched her mercilessly forward. Eventually she managed to half-regain her footing and stumbled towards the barn, pushed relentlessly forward by the strength of the gusts.

A particularly strong gale pitched her against the back of the stable, causing her to whimper with pain at something in her rib. Carefully, she sidled down the side to slip into the entrance while blinking rain from her eyes. Oakley reared and whinnied at the movement, nearly clobbering her in the head with a flailing hoof.

"Shh! It's okay, boy, it's just me!" she called over the wind's roar, her voice cracking wearily as she reached out to him. "Shhh, calm down, everything's going to be okay…"

The stallion calmed at her voice and touch, but his eyes still rolled back in fear with the persistent splintering of the boards and whistling of the wind. Ella finally steadied him long enough to clip a lead rope to his halter, and on second thought grabbed one of his stockings to tie over his eyes. With that finished, she led him out into the elements and mounted his back.

He was frisky, still panicked by the storm, but she crouched low to his back and steadied him with her voice, urging him forward. "Come on," she murmured through clenched teeth. "Come on, we can get there."

Oakley picked his way through the field, head bent against the wind and occasionally stumbling over roots, but reached the barn. Quickly she threw open the door and slapped his rump to startle him inside. Then, she headed back to the chicken coop—which was already starting to weaken.

Literally throwing caution to the wind, she grabbed two chickens and made a mad chicken run to the barn before heading back for the final one—Lucky the chick.

The entire coop was shuddering and splintering by the time Ella reached Lucky; the tiny ball of fluff was trembling as it pressed itself against a corner of the coop. The farmer scooped it up and lowered herself to the ground, hoping for a better chance to protect herself should she need to…

…Which she did. Her heart stopped cold when she heard an unearthly crunching above her head, and slowly looked up to see a major split from end to end on the main support beam. The dense ball of fear in the pit of her stomach tightened, and she became lightheaded with giddy terror. In blind hysteria she scrambled forward towards the door, scraping at the ground and clawing through everything in her way—but she wasn't fast enough.

The roof came crashing down with a terrific din, and instantly Ella felt a searing, red-hot pain shoot up both her legs. She gasped in agony, her eyes stinging with tears, and she fought to stay conscious with the anguish.

Lucky chirped from the pocket of her shredded pajamas, as if reminding the farmer of her duties. Ella inhaled deeply, the rib injury burning ferociously, and placed both hands on the ground. With elbows bent she began to drag herself from under the rubble.

The excruciating pain made her cry out again, but she knew there was nobody around to hear or help her. She clenched her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, and with a blast of willpower freed her out-of-order legs from the debris.

After that ordeal, the wind only seemed like an naggy, mildly annoying setback. She hauled herself towards the barn with her arms, dragging her legs behind her on the rough ground, and sat upright at the door to rend it open. With her last reserve of strength, she crawled under the chair still stationed by the end of the bar, cuddled Lucky, and passed out cold.

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"Ah—Trent, Elli! So glad you're here. As you can see, we have a bit of a situation and could use some extra hands."

The Mineral Town doctor and nurse looked over the Inner Inn lobby, which had been transformed into an infirmary complete with gurneys by Dr. Hardy. "No kidding," Trent murmured. "Who needs attention first?"

"Well, Romana took a nasty spill down the stairs, but I'll look after her. I would appreciate it if you took a look at those twins, Patrick and Kassey—they live in a tree-house thing, and it buckled and they came down with it. I think they're doing all right, but I'd feel better if you checked up on them."

"Sure thing," Trent replied, adjusting his reflector and walking over to one of the two gurneys Hardy had gestured to. He knelt down beside on of the twins and pressed his stethoscope to the man's chest. "Hello, I'm Dr. Trent. How are you today…Kassey, is it?"

"I'm Patrick," growled the man, swatting at the instrument. "And don't you go pressing nothin' to my chest or wantin' to dress me in a paper bag princess gown, alright, you young buck?"

Trent blinked, trying to get over being called a deer. "Err, we'll try to make this as comfortable as we can for you…" He paused, having forgotten which twin it was already. "…sir."

The pyro technician muttered something under his breath about vague incompetent bucks, and Trent moved on to the next one. This time he didn't bother with names at all. "Good morning sir, I'm…"

"Yeah yeah, the young buck from Mineral Town, I got it," he groused. "Get it over with quick, alright? There's probably something wrong with _his _brain, but Mother always said _I _was normal!"

"She said _I _was the normal one!" argued the other twin.

Trent bit the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. While twin 2 was yelling at twin 1, he quickly slipped on a blood pressure cuff and measured twin 2, who turned out to have practically equal to normal blood pressure. Trent stood up and moved on to the next bedridden victim, who was Muffy. She pulled the blanket up over her paper gown when he came over, and it required a lot of willpower to keep from rolling his eyes.

"Hello, Muffy."

"Hello Dr. Trent," she said delicately, fluttering her eyelashes.

He knelt down and got out the stethoscope. "How are you feeling?"

"Just wretched! An entire beam came down and nearly hit me, and I feel faint with fright…"

Celia came over with a bowl of water and a washcloth, which she used to dab at Muffy's forehead. "There, there, you're alright," she said reassuringly before turning to Trent. "I think she's okay…you can move on to someone else, I think."

Trent stood up and surveyed the room again, searching for a particular face. "So am I right to assume that Ella actually survived unscathed? I don't see her anywhere here."

Celia froze mid-dab. "Ella? Why—why, she isn't even back from Mineral Town yet—" Trent turned around and looked at her sharply. "—is she?" the farmhand finished in a small voice.

The doctor felt the first twinge of dread in his gut, knowing what was going to come next. He ran to the middle of the room and yelled at the top of his voice, "EVERYONE'S ATTENTION, PLEASE!" When the room fell silent and all eyes were on him, he continued. "Ella Kelley, your new farmer, was supposed to arrive here sometime last night. Does anybody know if she got here?"

Long silence.

"Does anybody know where she is?"

Longer silence.

"Has anyone seen her since the hurricane?"

Yet longer silence.

"Has anyone checked her farm?"

Longest silence of all.

Just as he'd feared. Briskly, he headed toward the door, threw it open, and ran down the pathway towards the farm. Elli overcame her shock a few seconds later and bolted after him.

Trent ran up the hill and looked over at the pile of shambles where Ella's house once stood. He ran over and tore through the debris, yelling her name, but found nothing. His eyes then landed on the collapsed chicken coop—and he sprinted across the field to sift through the rubble of the roof.

His heart nearly stopped when he found traces of blood in the soil, but there was still no blonde farmer. _Well,_ he thought, focusing on the partially-destroyed barn, _it's always in the last place you look._

He picked his way over the rubble, tripping over a twisted eave, and stopped in front of the barn. The front half was in many, many pieces—but the back half was partially standing and guarded by a herd of various unhappy animals.

Cautiously Trent approached them. The three giant cows snorted and pawed the ground menacingly when he came near, sometimes threatening to ram him. Three hens ran out from the middle, clucking angrily, and began to ferociously peck at his shoes.

"H-Hey!" Trent grabbed one offending chicken around the middle and held it up, examining its snow-white feathers. It scratched and pecked at him mercilessly, but it confirmed his suspicion—it was not injured, but there was some dried blood on its wing feathers. He tucked it under his arm (much to its dislike) and began to force his way through the core of protective animals to the middle.

The cows didn't like that very much. Elli gasped as they tried to crush the doctor between themselves and kicked and nipped at him. He climbed over the back of one of them and leapt into the heavily guarded middle, where he found what he was looking for.

There was a wooden chair sitting upright in the middle of the circle of animals, supporting a large, heavy side panel of the barn that had fallen. Under it, covered with various scratches and gouges and with one leg bending a way it definitely shouldn't, lay Ella.

Trent fell to his knees and crawled up to the girl, brushing the hair off her face to check her temperature. It was unnaturally cool. He pressed his hand against her carotid vein to check for a pulse—which was there, but not as strong as he would have liked. Finally, he pressed his hand to her upper chest to measure her breathing depth. He allowed himself to exhale in relief when that was also present, though shallow.

He closed his eyes, letting relief flood him, and also began to consider the best way to carry her, assuming her leg was badly broken.

Across from him, her eyes fluttered open, and her chest heaved painfully with the effort of breathing with a fractured rib. His eyes shot open in surprise, and for a long moment they just stared at each other.

With great trouble, she moved her hand to push feebly on his arm, which was still pressed against her chest. "Look at you…I thought you came to rescue me at first, but you're closer to assaulting me," she joked weakly.

Trent smiled. She was okay.

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**A/N: Cheesefest, I know. I was going to add more, but it got sort of long on its own with the hurricane scene, so I'll just have to push it off till chapter 15. (I can't believe I made it up to chapter 15 with this little story o.O)**

**Thank you so very much for reading, and I hope you liked it! All feedback/ comments/ reviews/ critiques are appreciated C:**


	14. The Wild Calls Again

**A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry this took so long! It's the March Break, and we're heading to Florida tomorrow! (Yaaaaayyy!) Which means probably another week+ before the next chapter. Anyway. This chapter sort of sets the ground for the next few, but hopefully it's not at all boring (: Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Harvest Moon…**

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With a heavy _whump_, Trent flopped onto Ella's cot and lay on his belly, chin resting on his hands and raised by his elbows, and looked at her with a wry smile. She lazily turned her head to glance at him from her newspaper, wrinkled her nose, and turned away again.

"Guess what?" he asked.

"You found the cure for cancer?" she asked archly.

"Not yet. Guess again."

"You…won a billion G and want to share it with me? Oh, Trent, I definitely accept! You shouldn't have!"

"I didn't," he said mildly. "Keep guessing."

"Really? That's not very exciting. What good are you anyway?" she asked in mock boredom. He looked pointedly at her leg, encased in a plaster cast, and back at her. "I mean _besides _that."

"Well," he began, rolling over on his side and resting his head on one hand. "Since you fail so badly at guessing, I'll just tell you. We're going on a very fun camping herb exploration-type trip."

"Yaaaay, camping," she said with little enthusiasm. "So who's going to take care of me while you're gone?" Ruby, followed by her son carrying a kettle of hot water, came down the stairs. Rock wiggled his fingers at Ella and accidentally spilled the entire kettle all over the stairs. "Please, _please _don't say Rock," she added under her breath to Trent through a feigned smile at Rock.

"Aww, I wouldn't do that to you. I have plans for you. Hey, Ruby, I don't mean to bother you…" he added, wrinkling his nose, "But…is something…burning?"

"Oh! Oh, no!" The overtired hostess leapt up from her chair and bustled towards the kitchen. "The coffee!" Dark smoke billowed out from the kitchen when she threw the curtains aside and bolted in.

Ella blinked and pushed herself up on her elbows. "Hang on a sec…define 'we'." Trent grinned wickedly as she narrowed her eyes. "What is going through that mind of yours…? You're scaring me!..."

"Well, you see, Princess," he began as he resettled himself on the cot, "this is an annual thing we do…"

"Who's we?" Ella interrupted.

"Hardy, Elli and I. Anyway…I couldn't possibly entrust you to Rock, so I'm afraid you're coming with us."

Her head fell back against the pillow. "Really?"

"Yes," he said firmly. "Really."

She rolled over to face him. "Is that a good idea, in my condition?"

He tilted his head to one side. "You have a broken leg, and some bruising around your ribs. We'll stick you on a horse, take our time, and you'll be just fine, alright, milady?"

Elli bounced in from the main lobby area and also flopped onto the cot. "It's fun! You'll love it, it's a nice little getaway. Although we're going a little early this year."

"Okay," Ella said resignedly. "Wherever my doctor goeth, I goeth also."

"That's right," Trent chuckled, patting her head diminutively. "She knows where it's at."

Ruby wandered by, carrying a blackened coffee pot at arm's length. "Now, Doctor, be careful of the poor dear!"

"I am," he replied tiredly. He and Ella exchanged long-suffering looks.

"Hang on, is someone looking after my farm?" the farmer suddenly asked in a slight panic.

"Yeah, everything's looked after," Trent assured her, then grunted as Elli grabbed his arm and attempted to pull him off the cot. "Takakura is—watching—your animals and—we called—Gotz in to—reconstruct. Jeez, woman," he added teasingly. Elli giggled as she heaved him to his feet, and he stretched. "Anyway," he said to Ella over his shoulder, "Takakura already got all your stuff packed…we're leaving this afternoon."

The petite blonde's jaw dropped. "How long have you been planning this?"

"All year~" Elli sang as she danced by carrying a suitcase. Trent grabbed his clipboard and walked away thoughtfully, chewing the end of the pen.

"Where is it we're going?"

"This quaint, beautiful little place called Flower Bud Village. Trent has some sort of past there," she added in a secretive whisper. "But he won't tell me what it is!"

"Huh," Ella said thoughtfully. "That's weird."

"I'm determined to find out what it is!" Elli continued. "Anyway, how's your leg doing?" She reached for the cast, and Ella flinched as her hands drew closer.

"Trent said that it should be left alone," she said quickly. "Even he won't touch it."

"Pfft," scoffed Elli, but she was distracted at his voice calling for her to come into the kitchen.

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THAT NIGHT

"Are we there yet?" Elli whined from her seat on Oakley behind Ella. The farmer slumped forward onto the horse's neck.

"I feel like Mary going to Bethlehem," she mumbled into his mane.

"Oh, come on. The sun has just barely set…it's not _that _late," Trent called out ahead of them, where he was leading the horse at what was, in Elli's opinion, a painstakingly slow pace. "Besides, you're not pregnant."

There was a long pause.

"Feel free to agree with me," he added half-jokingly. Ella burst out laughing.

Hardy rode alongside them on a borrowed pale palomino from Goddess knew where. The older doctor cleared his raspy throat, and pointed ahead. "Look, kids—just over that hill."

Ella looked to the left, to the right. Elli was standing in the stirrups, straining to see; Trent was craning his neck and squinting. The farmer casually gave her horse a good nudge with her heels, and Oakley broke into a brisk trot.

"Whoa!" cried Trent, trying to regain his grasp on the reins. Ella grinned, playfully tugged them out of his reach, and guided Oakley towards the crest of the hill. Hardy sighed resignedly and followed in their eager wake. She and Elli leaned over in the saddle and gaped down at the little town nestled in the valley overflowing with greenery.

"Is that it? It's so beautiful," Ella whispered reverently.

"Yes. Let's get a move on, kids," Hardy said briskly. He turned his horse around and continued down the path.

Trent grabbed the reins again, but the three didn't move. "Yeah," he agreed quietly.

"Well, let's press on," Elli said.

Ella nudged the doctor lightly with her good foot.

"Mmmmmmmmhm…" he turned slowly. "Yeah, we're almost at the campsite now."

"You okay?" Ella asked.

"Of course."

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Ella slept through most of the camp setup. When she woke, she was curled up on a plushy blanket in a tent illuminated by the warm glow of a bonfire outside. She crawled out, yawning, to find Hardy, Trent and Elli sitting on logs around it. A small stream flowed just behind her tent. The doctor, like he had just stepped out of a total movie cliché, was strumming a guitar.

"Oh, good evening, Miss Kelley," Hardy rasped in her general direction.

She smiled. "Good evening. Did I already miss the ghost stories?"

Elli giggled. "We don't usually tell ghost stories, but we should start!" She glanced over at Trent, who was chewing his lip. "Well? Wanna?"

"Uhh, sure," he said. "But I don't really know any good ghost stories…Do you, Hardy?"

"Nah," he said. "But I sure do know a lot of freaky _true_ stories."

"Oh, Goddess," whispered Elli. Ella crawled up and took her place beside the nurse, who was leaning intently towards the wizened doctor. "Well?" she prompted, when he didn't say anything more.

"Well," Hardy began darkly, "It all began on a small camping trip, much like this one. Four teenagers—two couples—headed out into the woods, fully prepared to stay the weekend. Winter was just ending, so there was still ice and snow all over the place. They set up camp near a river so that they would have fish to catch and fresh water to use. What they weren't aware of was a certain love triangle: both girls were in love with the same boy, but only one was—and could be—his girlfriend. The girl who was with the other boy had only settled for him, but he was madly in love with her…in fact, she was the ex of the boy she was still in love with.

"Now, one night the jealous girl just became fed up with how her ex and his new girlfriend were fawning over each other, and of all the things he was promising her but never promised the first girl. So, after the boys had gone to bed in their tent, she suggested that the two girls go for a walk. The boys heard the twigs snapping as they left, but thought nothing of it. It wasn't until much later that there was a splash—" Suddenly, somewhere in the distance, there _was _a splash. The three listeners exchanged confused glances, but Hardy plowed on. "—there was a splash, and they heard two sets soggy footsteps running through the foliage, snapping twigs—but only one girl showed up.

"Her clothes and hair were soaked, her makeup was ruined; she was pale as a sheet of paper. She screamed that the other girl had slipped on the snow and fell into the river—she'd tried to save her, but it was too late. She was incredibly shaken. Her boyfriend ran up to comfort her, and her ex tore off into the forest to search for his girlfriend. He never returned.

"Many speculate that the girl pushed her friend in herself out of jealousy, but never expected her to drown. Many speculate that she planned the drowning the whole time. But nobody knows for sure, and nobody knows why the boys distinctly heard two pairs of sopping footsteps running back towards the tent. It is said to this day that late at night, you can still hear the second pair running through the forest, trying to find her way back to the campsite…or possibly to revenge."

They were silent for a long time. Elli shuddered. "That's awful," she whispered, and then blinked. "Huh…didn't you say it was true?"

The doctor nodded gravely as he poked the bonfire. "So they say."

"'They say' a lot," Trent murmured. Elli began to say something, but cut off abruptly when she heard a twig snap behind them.

"It's okay," Ella said quietly. "This forest is—probably full of campers, and—and—animals." Trent looked around alertly.

Another twig snapped. Elli, Trent, and Ella froze; Hardy chewed on a stalk of grass and poked the fire again.

_Squelch._

"Oh, Goddess," Elli whispered. "That sounded like a wet shoe!"

_Squelch. Squelch squelch. Squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch_

"Ahhh, what do we do?" the nurse cried in a panicked whisper. A gloved hand from behind came to rest on her shoulder. Both she and Ella jumped up and screamed, Trent fell backward off the log, and Hardy glanced up with mild interest.

The hand jumped back. Three pairs of eyes travelled up the arm and looked into the surprised face of a young man in safari wear.

"I'm sorry!" he cried. "I didn't mean to scare you—I just fell into the river awhile back, saw the campfire, and was wondering if you'd be kind enough to share the warmth!"

"Oh," Ella panted. "You…of course." She laughed a little. "Come on over."

Elli gripped her heart and watched him as he sat down. "You have no idea how bad your timing was," she panted.

He held his hands out to the fire. "Really, how so? Oh, hold on. Manners!" He ripped his wet glove off and wiped his hand on his equally wet pant leg, then offered it to Trent. "I'm Basil, a botanist from Flower Bud. I was just out exploring the flora in the area."

Trent accepted and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Trent—a doctor from Mineral Town—and we were also out to check out the plant life. This is Elli, my nurse…" he gestured at her, and Basil leaned across Ella to shake her hand, murmuring, "A pleasure, my lady." Ella interrupted Trent before he could introduce her.

"—And I'm Ella, his out-patient," she said with a smile. They shook hands.

"I'm Hardy," Hardy said. Basil blinked at him. "Dr. Hardy, Forget-Me-Not Valley," he added, just to clear things up. Basil stood up and walked over to shake his hand. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, young man."

"We were telling ghost stories about wet, running footsteps when you showed up," Elli told him, still looking shaken.

Basil sat down again, this time beside the nurse. "We were telling ghost stories about wet, running footsteps when you showed up," Elli told him, still looking shaken.

"Oh, were you? That is such a freaky coincidence. I'm terribly sorry, Miss Elli, I would never want to frighten you!" She inhaled deeply and smiled back at him.

Basil then turned his attention on the doctor, scrutinizing him across the fire. "Trent, Trent. I feel like I should know you. Did we go to the same university, or something?"

Trent glanced up. "Iverness?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Trent grinned. "Nice! How're you doing?"

Basil's smile faltered. "No wait. That's not all of it. Hold on a sec…" He tilted his head to the side, and Trent seemed to inwardly cringe at the assessment. "Oh, I know you! Dude! You _grew up here_ with me! How long were you planning on letting me flounder around like an idiot guessing, you jerk? Why didn't you just tell me? Come on, stand up, I demand a man-hug."

Trent stood up obediently. Ella grinned a little bit at the slightly pained expression on the doctor's face that seemed to read "_That's _why", but Basil didn't seem to notice.

The two sat down again. She expected Basil to now sit down beside Trent, but he chose her old spot beside Elli. "So, made it through that program, hm?"

The two professionals, with Hardy occasionally joining in, began a long discussion about chemical properties of all kinds of things that neither Ella nor Elli had the energy to follow.

Ella leaned over to the nurse. "So he grew up here, apparently?"

"I guess so," Elli whispered back with a nod. "Apparently if you want genius-kids, this is the place to raise 'em…"

Ella laughed. "Excellent. We'll have to bug him for more details later."

"Definitely!"

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Birds twittering woke Ella up. She smiled and stretched, and accidentally clocked Elli in the face.

"Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry!" she whispered. "I didn't know you were sleeping in here too!"

The nurse rubbed her cheek sleepily. "Sss'okay…don't worry…I'm going back to sleep…"

"Okay," Ella replied quietly. She reached for her luggage bag and pulled out a halter top and some jeans. She dressed quickly, grabbed her crutches from the corner of the tent, and hobbled out to greet the day.

The logs sat in the middle of the campsite around the remains of last night's fire. To one side was a navy blue tent and to the other was a camouflage green/brown patterned tent, which she decided had to be Basil's. She glanced around to see if anyone else was up.

"Good morning, Miss Kelley," Hardy's voice called from behind her. She spun around to see him standing by the stream with a crudely made fishing rod, in a plain white T-shirt, his boxer shorts, and fluffy bunny slippers.

"Good morning," she called back cheerfully, hobbling over to him. "Is that breakfast you're catching?"

"Nah, that's what Trent 'n Basil are up to," the doctor replied, nodding his head to the right. She glanced over and, sure enough, saw the two of them kneeling down to inspect a plant.

Trent had tossed aside his lab coat in favour of a blue polo and—gasp!—jeans, while Basil had changed into a short-sleeved brown button-down.

"Hi, guys," she said as she limped over.

Trent looked over his shoulder at her. "Oh, morning, Ella. How are you doing?"

"Is your friend up yet?" Basil asked.

"Huh, Elli?"

"Yeah."

"Nope," she replied. "She's getting a little more beauty sleep."

"She doesn't need it," Basil chuckled.

Ella grinned. "Aww."

Trent stood up and stretched his back. "So uh, there's some herb tea and herb fish over by the bonfire, if you're hungry…and I can make more if you want."

"Okay, thanks! And don't worry, I think that'll be enough." She began to hobble back to the fire, then stopped. "Um…are you just going to be looking at the foliage all day? I mean—that's fine, just is there anything I can do, or…?"

"Uhh…" Trent scratched the back of his head. "I hadn't really planned anything for you…we'll probably be gone all day, but I'm sure somebody will stay back with you. But I'd prefer if you didn't run around too much, the jostling isn't too good for your leg."

"Oh, okay," she replied. "I might just go down and check out the town!"

"Ehhhrrr…" he shifted uncomfortably. "With….an escort, please."

She nodded, excited now. "Of course! Well, happy plant-hunting, you two!" As she hobbled away, she heard Basil ask Trent, "Is your nurse going to be coming today?"

Just as she'd finished gobbling up a piece of herb fish, she heard Elli emerge from the tent. "Good morning," she called out.

"Morning," Elli said cheerfully, plopping herself down beside Elli. "Is this for us?"

The farmer nodded towards the last piece. "That one's for you, yeah."

"Yummy!"

"Mhmm!" Ella turned around to face the nurse. "Soooo…are you going with Basil and Trent today, or staying back with me?"

Elli blinked. "Basil stayed?"

"Yeah. I think he's interested in a certain someone," Ella replied archly.

"Too bad Trent isn't returning the love," Hardy said sarcastically as he walked by behind them. Ella burst out laughing, but Elli looked concerned.

"_What_?" she cried. "Basil's interested in _Trent_?"

"Noooo!" Ella laughed. "We were just making fun of…how much of a people person he is that he was making Trent feel all awkward. Never mind, it was a joke! They're getting along now. Anyway, the point is…are you going with them?"

"Maybe I should!" Elli said, still looking protective.

Ella sighed. "No, Basil is really not interested in Trent, I promise. He's interested in _you_."

"Maybe I shouldn't," Elli said, looking sad. "Or wait! Maybe I should, and then…yeah…" A scheming expression came across her face.

"It's your choice," Ella said.

"Okay, fine, I'll go!" She jumped up, gathered her skirts, and began walking away with purpose. "They're over this way, right?"

"Yep," Ella called after her.

"Guess that means I'm staying back with you," Dr. Hardy said to Ella. "Someone's gotta keep you out of trouble."

She grinned. "Yup, that's for sure."

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**A/N: Hmmm…when I got some reviews and even some messages about how upset some people were that Elli sort of gets left in the cold, it was so hard for me not to just say, "Dun worrie, I haz plans for her 8D". You can probably piece them together from this chapter. But yeah. And sorry it cuts off so abruptly…I HAVE TO GO PACK =] Happy March Break everyone~**


	15. The House on the Hill

**A/N: Hm…not entirely sure what to say about this one! I had tons of fun writing it…probably too much fun. Yes, actually, definitely too much fun. My family is now thoroughly convinced I need a life. **

**But anyway. I very much hope you like it ^_^**

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing!**

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Ella stretched out her legs and glanced deviously over at Hardy. "Someone's gotta keep you out of trouble," he'd rumbled a mere ten minutes ago. By now, he was fast asleep in what looked to be an extremely uncomfortable position.

Bored, she tilted her head to the side in an attempt to mimic his. "Ow," she murmured before long, rubbing her neck. She then crawled over to him across the grass and snapped her fingers in front of his face. He didn't stir. She grinned wickedly, grabbed her crutches, and hobbled over to where Oakley was peacefully grazing under a tree.

Patting his neck, she fastened her crutches to his saddle and heaved herself up, barely biting back her cry at her broken leg temporarily supporting her weight. Once she was securely nestled into the saddle, she turned Oakley towards the direction they came. As she leaned down close to his head, she whispered overdramatically, "Come on, let's go find that horizon…"

And they galloped off into the sunset.

More like the watery morning sunlight, but don't rain on her parade.

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The noonday sun sat high in the sky when the herb-scavenging troupe returned to home base.

"Aaaah…not bad for a morning's haul, eh?" Basil remarked, dropping his bag of spoils at the campsite and stretching his back.

Elli flomped down in the shade of a log and groaned, fanning herself with the front of her blouse. "It was waaayyy too hot for this," she panted. Basil offered her his water bottle.

Trent glanced around, then spied Dr. Hardy reclining in front of the fire where a pot of something bubbled. Elli whimpered and dumped Basil's water bottle over her head.

He sat down beside the older doctor, still looking around the camp suspiciously. "So where've you been keeping Ella?"

Hardy shrugged, chewing on a stalk of grass. "Dunno."

Trent's eyes widened. "_What_?" he demanded incredulously. "Tell me you're joking." Elli sat up and stared at him.

"I woke up after quite a short little nap, and couldn't find the girl anywhere."

"_What_?" The nurse shrieked.

Trent sputtered for a few seconds, too frustrated to even form words. When he did, all he could say was, "Oh, my Goddess! Oh, my _Goddess! _" while storming around the site.

"You can't be serious!" Elli cried. "You fell asleep and let her wander away?"

"I didn't _let her _wander. She chose to. And anyway, she can't be far," Hardy yawned, unperturbed.

"Oh, my Goddess!" Trent fumed. "Great! Just great! This woman is giving me anxiety! Is she intent on killing herself? First she peaces out and goes back to the Valley in the middle of a hurricane and nearly dies, and then after she's nearly died she sets off on her own in an unknown forest with a broken leg, when everybody who can help her is back _here!" _He turned to Elli. "Ohh, I know what's going to happen next. You know what's going to happen next, Elli?"

The nurse stared at him with wide eyes. "N-no?"

"She's going to like, try to jump over a mega tree or something and fall off her horse into a ditch and break all her remaining bones and sink into a coma so that she won't be able to hear us when and IF we go looking for her which I might not because I'm so mad, and then she'll probably die this time. OR we will find her and she'll just stay in a coma the rest of the time because, amazingly, WE DON'T HAVE A CLINIC HERE!"

"But—" Basil began.

"But you're right, maybe that's a good thing because that way she won't be conscious enough to go M.I.A. again and cause any more damage to herself! When we find her, I am strapping that woman in a straitjacket!"

With that, he plunked himself down on a log and stared accusingly at the pot, bouncing his legs in agitation. As if on cue, it boiled over. The fire below hissed.

"I know!" Basil said brightly. "Did she mention to anyone where she would be going?"

Elli stared at him. "If she did, do you think we'd be this WORRIED?"

"Worried?" spat Trent. "I'm…I'm…"

"Worried," Elli finished for him. "You just gave a three paragraph rant."

"Yeah, well, if a bear ate her, maybe she wouldn't go AWOL again."

"You don't mean that," Elli said softly. Trent snorted.

"She'd be dead," Basil told him gently, as if breaking the news to him.

"Okay, really, kids. Let's think about this," Hardy said pragmatically. "Anything she expressed interest in, like the scenery, or…"

"…the dietary habits of the local bears…"

"TRENT."

"Sorry."

Basil tutted. "What would she say if she heard you saying all this?"

Trent glared. "She'd kick me with the leg she forgot was broken and I'd have to spend an extra month on it."

Elli laughed. "He's probably right."

Suddenly, the doctor snapped his fingers. "Ugh, I bet I know where she is…Dr. Hardy, may I borrow your horse?"

Hardy waved his hand. "By all means."

Trent leapt up and ran over to the surprised-looking palomino while Basil and Elli looked on in confusion. "I'll be right back…hopefully. Good luck with dinner." And he galloped away.

Elli turned to Basil. "What part of coming 'right back' happens after dinner?"

The botanist laughed a bit and shook his head. "I don't know, but I feel like some seasoned rainbow trout. What say you?"

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"Don't forget, we're open late tonight!"

Ella covered her mouth and swallowed. "Yep, I know! Thank you!"

"Bye now."

Bells tinkled charmingly as she stepped outside the small-town inn into the warm sunlight. She took another bite of her omelette, savouring the taste of fresh food that was not fish.

"You know," she said to Oakley, her mouth full, "thish plashe ish great." She swallowed. "The guy in the Inn there says we have got to visit the ocean before we leave."

Her horse snorted and bobbed his head up and down before shoving his nose in her food. "No, not for you, silly boy." She stuffed the remaining bits of omelette in her mouth before mounting up and aiming towards where she thought the Inn owner had said the beach was.

As she rode along however, she began to see less and less nature and more and more town—except for the odd patches of farmer's fields in between shops and homes. Finally Ella stopped Oakley short, certain she was heading the wrong way. Luckily for her, a demure, bookish girl that reminded her strongly of Mary was heading her way.

The girl stopped in front of Ella and looked up at her quizzically. "Um, hello…are you here to start a farm too?"

Ella blinked in surprise. "Ah, no," she replied. "I'm just a tourist, really."

"Oh," said the girl. "A tourist…Were you lost?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the beach, actually…" Ella admitted, embarrassed.

"The beach, of course," the girl said quietly, before gesturing down the road immediately behind Ella. "Just follow that path right there, it'll lead you straight to it."

"Oh!" Ella laughed. "Wow, that's so obvious. Thanks for your help."

The girl smiled a bit. "No problem, I hope you enjoy your stay here in our lovely little town."

"Oh, I am," Ella smiled. "Well, goodbye now. Thanks again!"

"Goodbye, and you're welcome."

Ella turned Oakley around and trotted down the path the girl had indicated, and sure enough ended up at the widest beach she'd ever seen (although she'd only ever seen Mineral Town's and Forget-Me-Not Valley's…).

"Whoa," she whispered, enraptured. The length of the beach filled her with excitement…She positioned Oakley parallel to the shoreline and adjusted her position. Then, without warning, she suddenly spurred him on and let out a whoop as he galloped down the shoreline. She'd always wanted to do that.

When they reached the far end of the beach, she dismounted her horse to let him wander into the water to cool off. She spread out on the beach, relaxing her jostled leg, and looked around.

That's when she noticed the big, beautiful abandoned house.

It sat majestically on an overgrown plot of land overlooking the beach, one side collapsed. She immediately got to her feet and began to hobble towards it, as if in a trance. There was something about its once-grand splendour that attracted her to it like a bee to honey.

The burgundy-painted, gold-accented door hung on one hinge. The wind swayed the door, causing the knocker to tap it every so often—almost announcing her arrival. She pushed it open and wandered inside.

The décor took her breath away. Two giant, gold-filigree crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling of the foyer, while a third—the biggest one of all—lay shattered at the base of a gorgeously carved staircase that led to a partially destroyed upper level. Past the foyer, an intricate lace-embroidered linen tablecloth was spread across a long dinner table, fully laid with gold-accented fine bone china dinnerware. The rug she was standing on was partially rotted with the sea air, but she could tell it was once fine—possibly an authentic Persian rug.

Showcases and cupboards, finely carved, were brimming with beautiful chinaware and bizarre, expensive-looking figurines. There was an enormous antique mirror on the ceiling, intricately carved with cherubs and flowers.

In every room there were shelves and shelves of books—many rooms also had desks and fireplaces, among other extravagant odds and ends. One room had a beautiful white four-poster bed and, more interestingly, some kind of certificate framed on a wall. She blew the dust off the glass, but there was more inside making it impossible to make out the words. She left it—it wasn't hers to meddle with.

One room gave a hint as to the house's former owners. It was what appeared to be a ballroom; enormous, gaudy and its walls and floors reflective even through years of dust. What caught her attention was the giant portrait on one wall—in it, a tall, serious-looking man stood with his petite, serious-looking wife, his hand resting on the shoulder of his young, serious-looking son. They were all dressed in elegant evening wear.

She studied the portrait, feeling drawn to it and compelled to figure out the story behind the wealthy family and their abandoned home. She would inspect the parents' faces both in turn, but always ended up returning the son's cool, indifferent gaze. His shock of black hair partially obscured one eye, making his expression seem all the more icy—although in truth, being a kid, he probably just didn't like standing still so long for the artist. He looked to be 11 or 12 years old.

She narrowed her eyes, unable to shake the feeling that she was missing something big. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply to clear her head—and inhaled a lungful of dust. She spluttered and coughed, pressing her aching ribs. Time to move on.

She emerged into the foyer again, hobbling carefully over the debris under the archway, and inspected the grand staircase with interest. What treasures waited up there…? Tentatively, she pressed down on the third stair up with a crutch. It seemed solid enough. She took one step up, then another.

By the time she was at the top of the stairs, she was feeling pretty good—she'd almost toppled over only twice, and only one crutch had pushed through a rotten part of a stair. There was a large gap between the top of the stair and the second storey, but if she juuuust stretched a little more, she could probably…

"_Ella! _What are you, nuts? Whaddaya think you're DOING?"

"Aaaah!" she shrieked, her heart thumping painfully in surprise. She lost her balance and toppled forward, but managed to grab the edge of the other side of the gap—so her feet were on the top of the stairs, her hands clutched the other side of the chasm, and…her body was suspended over empty air.

"Oh, my _Goddess_!"

Her heart sank. Yep, that was Trent all right, and…he was not a happy camper.

Footsteps thundered up the stairs. She tried to turn her head, but one of her hands started slipping.

"STOP!" she yelled. "They're partially rotted, you're going to fall through!"

"Careful! Don't mind me, just focus on NOT FALLING." There was a groaning of wood, and she heard a sharp splintering noise as one of Trent's feet went through the stair.

"Told you so," she said, feeling a smidgeon of smugness.

He sighed. "You'd know."

Her hand slid a little further down, now slippery with sweat. "Um, Trent?" She glanced quickly back at him. "I—I, uh—"

He grabbed the banister and tried to haul his foot out of the wood. "Little busy, just hold on a sec…"

She swallowed. "I don't know if I can," she said very quietly.

"What?" he said sharply. She grimaced.

"Nothing!"

He froze and studied her ever-so-slowly descending form. "Like hell it's nothing!" he shot back before grabbing his leg with both hands.

She stared down at the marble floor dizzily, and the dinner table whirled and weaved before her eyes. She readjusted her feet, hoping to be able to push off the side and fall backward onto the stair.

Hoping they wouldn't break. And that she didn't screw up and fall.

She bent her elbows outward, readjusting herself.

"What're you doing?" the doctor shouted from behind her. "Don't get any ideas, just hold on! I'll be right there!"

"It's okay!" she yelled back. "I got this!"

"Nooo! Don't do it! Wait just a second!"

Didn't he realize the stair wouldn't be able to hold them both?

_Five…Four….Three…Two….two…TWO….._ "ONE!" Ella yelled. She pushed off the far end and reeled backward, flailing her arms around like a windmill for balance. For a second, she was almost vertical on the stairs—until with a sickening groan, the stair twisted forward and slide toward the floor.

She skidded down, arms flinging sporadically, resigned to harsh impact on the cold marble floor….when two steady hands grabbed hers.

"Gotcha," Trent grunted.

She panted, still terrified, and stared down at her feet dangling so high above the floor, scarcely able to form words. Instead, she just squeezed his hands and inhaled deeply, as if just surfacing from underwater.

Trent braced himself against the wall the stairs were mounted against and heaved, trying to put as much strength as he could into it without hurting her arms. Finally, he pulled her up over the stairs and towards the wall. He let go of her hands, and she sat beside him against the wall, still panting.

They stared straight out at nothing, heaving with exertion. Finally Ella turned, threw her arms around his neck and said, "Goddess, Trent! I don't even know what to say!"

"A simple thank you would suffice," he said grumpily into her shoulder, relief giving way to annoyance.

She drew away, laughing. "Of course. Thank you!"

He cleared his throat. "But, um, I guess it was, um, a good idea. Because—it would have broken, and we both would have fallen, if I had got there, and…um…I guess I didn't think of it, when you were…falling…"

Ella grinned. "I'm such a heroine."

He elbowed her. "But that doesn't mean this whole thing was a good idea! The heck were you doing here, anyway?"

She chewed her lip. "Well, um, Hardy fell asleep…and I really wanted to check out the town, and…"

"Find the best way to get killed?" he demanded, tapping his feet impatiently. "Ella, honestly! If I told you that dying of boredom was possible, would you have stayed put to try it out?"

She was silent.

Trent sighed. "Come on, let's get out of this place." He hooked his arms under her elbows and heaved her to her feet, and she followed him slowly down the stairs, limping heavily. He turned, grabbed her around the waist, lifted her, and began to carry her down the stairs like a sack of potatoes.

"Hey, quit it!" Ella resisted, wiggling. "I hate it when you carry me, I always end up in an infirmary somewhere!"

He grinned evilly. "I wonder why that is? Anyway, glad you're talking to me again, Princess."

"Yes, I'm sure that entire half minute of silence was just tearing you apart," she grumbled, still struggling slightly.

Trent plunked her at the foot of the stairs. "Wouldn't you like to know." He started heading for the door. "Alright, let's blow this popsicle stand…"

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast," Ella shot back, grabbing his collar. He let out a strangled "Erk!". "You can't just leave without looking around! You've got to see this place, it's gorgeous!"

His eyes narrowed as he briefly scanned the place. "Ella, it's falling apart, in case you still haven't noticed. That's why the stair was collapsing and all, you know?"

His sarcasm annoyed her, so she kicked him with her bad foot. "OW!"

Trent laughed out loud. "Did I call it or did I call it?"

"What are you _talking _about?" she demanded defensively.

"Nothing. Come on."

"No!" she pulled on his sleeve. "C'mon, Trent! You never see things like this anymore. It's incredible. It's amazing! It's stupendous and thoroughly impressive!"

"It's lavish, extravagant, and flamboyant," he retorted.

"How would you know? All you've seen are crumbling staircases and broken chandeliers."

"I've seen enough," he said shortly, shooting her an icy gaze. She fell back, her mouth slightly ajar.

He looked precisely like the child in the portrait.

Quickly, he turned away again and continued heading straight for the door, but Ella remained firmly planted in the foyer.

"Trent," she said simply.

He stopped, his hand resting on the door. "What?"

"When was the last time you came home?"

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**A/N: Fail dramatic moment ftw. Sorry, I again meant this to be a lot more than like, three scenes ;o;. I have a lot planned…but I got so carried away!...Anyway, I hope you guys liked it! ^^ **

**Please review if you have time, I appreciate it lots :]**


	16. A Whole New World

**A/N: Yaaay, it's finally done…(the chapter, not the story! Sorry if I got your hopes up :P) This was incredibly hard to write, with all the tension and difficulty and growing emotions and such. I'm not COMPLETELY happy, but I'm close enough, and I hope you lot like it :P**

**Speaking of you lot…I love you all and owe you all so much! The story would definitely not have made it this far without your support in reviewing, favouriting, and story alerting! I still get all excited when I get notified of anything, haha. My life is just so exciting. **

**Oh and also… ****missbabblingbrook21****: Sorry, I honestly meant to review your story but my iPod totally died in the middle of reading it! I promise I'll finish it though ^^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, or any of the movies I mention in this story xD**

**And without further ado….chapter 17!**

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Trent never thought he'd come back to this place. Ever.

Gruffly and reluctantly, he'd asked Ella how she knew it was his old house. Somehow, she had convinced him to take her on a mini-tour around the crumbling old mansion as way of explanation, although he was pretty sure she'd taken herself on a tour before she'd decided climbing up to a disintegrating upper level with a broken leg and crutches was a good idea.

He came to regret asking. From the second he took his first step from the foyer to the lavish dining room, he was enveloped in nostalgia. The colours (now faded), the portraits (peeling), silverware (tarnished) –everything still had its old significance, its old resentment.

Ella led him through the dining room and down a long hall one of his nannies used to refer to as the "Catwalk", where all his mother's cats used to parade as though they owned the place. He smiled slightly at the patch of lighter purple where she had hastily painted over a claw mark in the wall before his father noticed.

Uncertainly, the blonde wandered into one of the maids' old rooms. She glanced around, definitely lost, even though she wasn't about to admit it.

"Where are you trying to go?" he finally asked, gently, although the suddenness of his voice made her jump a bit.

"Um, the ballroom…"

He blinked. "The…ballroom? Uh, okay….right this way…" Taking her arm, he guided her away from the Catwalk and ducked through a different room, using it as a shortcut to yet another hall.

"Wait, hold on," Ella said suddenly, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. He turned around, and she poked her head into a room that made his stomach tighten. "There was something…yeah, it's in this room." She waved him over. Reluctantly he followed her in and glanced around stiffly.

Ella made a face and dusted off the white four-poster bed and mahogany desk before gesturing at the framed certificate on the wall. "Um…What's that?" she asked.

Clenching and unclenching his sweaty fists, Trent replied tersely, "My father's doctorate certificate. This was—" His voice caught, and he hated himself for it. "This was his study."

"Oh, I—I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked…" Ella felt awful—she'd apparently hit upon a touchy subject. She cast her eyes about awkwardly before dropping a crutch to wordlessly take his hand and lead him out of the room, hoping that getting him out of there would make him feel better. Part of her wanted desperately to bring him back out into the sunshine, but she'd gotten too far into it now. She _had_ to know this.

He hated how clammy and sweaty his hand was, hated how he'd upset her, hated the way this house, memories, Ella—everything—made him feel. He braced himself and waited for her to get grossed out by his clammy hand and drop it, but she never did. If anything, she held it tighter.

Screw emotions.

Now Ella knew where she was going. She didn't want to upset Trent again, so she made a beeline straight for the ballroom. She wasn't sure how he'd react to her grabbing his hand, but so far so good—while he wasn't exactly holding her hand back, he wasn't resisting. His hand was just sort of limp in hers.

Which was good.

Things might've been awkward otherwise.

More awkward than they were.

After what seemed like ten forevers, Ella reached the grand, heavy old doors at the end of the hallway. She pushed them open with her shoulder and a crutch.

Trent followed her in and looked around expressionlessly. She gently let go of his hand, and it fell to his side heavily. "This isn't—" his voice cracked, and he realized his throat had gone dry. He swallowed, and continued humourlessly, "This isn't exactly how I remember it."

Ella grinned. "I bet most of this place looks a little different, yeah?"

He shrugged. "I guess so." The doctor's dark eyes searched the familiar walls and ornaments before coming to rest on the enormous, ornately framed portrait of himself as a child with his parents. His throat tightened. "Oh," he said.

His companion grasped his arm for mutual support and followed his eyes. "Yeah," she said. "To answer your question, that's how I knew this was your house. You gave me that exact same withering look you're giving the poor little artist who had to paint you."

Trent smiled, and it almost reached his eyes. "That was it? Just one look at the portrait and you knew..?"

"Well," Ella admitted, "I actually stood there staring at it for ages, and couldn't figure out what was so familiar about the kid. Also, um…Elli confided in me that you had some sort of past here, but wouldn't tell her anything, so I just sort of put two and two together…"

Trent grumbled something about the trustworthiness of Elli, and then promptly sat down on the floor, dragging Ella down with him. She let out a little yelp of surprise as she plopped down to the marble floor on her bum.

Trent stretched his legs out with a sigh and leaned back on his elbows as Ella playfully mirrored his position directly across from him, so that the bottoms of their feet were pressed together. She watched him over their toes.

He tapped his left foot against hers, staring back at her and waiting for her to ask the question he knew was burning on her mind.

She squirmed under his gaze. "So. This is where you had all those terrible dance partners you mentioned, huh?"

Trent smiled. "Uh-huh. It's also where my mom taught me to ballroom dance." His smile faded a little bit.

Ella noticed. "Hm. I never learned how to do ballroom." She wiggled her toes. "You should teach me."

The doctor chuckled, doodling in the dust on the floor absent-mindedly. He cleared his throat. "My, uh…my parents were highly respected physicians, made a lot of progress towards cures and medicine and that sort of thing. They were very successful and very busy."

"They sound a lot like you," Ella remarked. She drew a flower in the dust by her hip. "You must make them proud."

Trent smiled hollowly again, not meeting her eyes. "Maybe. I was an awful kid though."

She kicked his foot. "Don't say that!"

"I was," he said distantly. "I was the worst kind of kid. You know, selfish, but privileged too. I didn't think they ever had enough time for me—which they didn't—but I could have handled it better." He scrutinized a speck of dust on his pants and then added almost to himself, "They shouldn't have even had a kid."

Ella was quiet, adding details to the petals on her dust-flower as she thought. "Well, I'm glad they did."

Trent half-smiled to himself and wiggled the foot not joined to her broken leg. "I just wish I'd understood then. I made life so difficult."

She looked up at him. "I'm sure they didn't expect you to understand. I'm sure they loved you no matter what you did or said."

"They might have, but I don't blame them if they didn't," he said with a sigh. He rubbed out his dust-drawing with his fist and started on another one.

Ella watched him carefully, and then struggled to get to her feet. He grimaced as she leaned heavily against her crutch. "What are you doing…?" he asked, slightly upset. Was he boring her?

With great effort, she dragged herself over to him and grabbed an arm, attempting to haul him to his feet. "Get up! You're going to teach me how to ballroom dance."

Trent's mouth fell open and he stared at her like she had suddenly just sprouted two extra heads. "What—_What_? Ella, you can barely walk!"

"That's why I need a partner," she said matter-of-factly. "Now, get up! It's not polite to keep your partner waiting!"

"What if I want a different partner?" Trent asked teasingly.

Ella scoffed. "Psh! Don't make me laugh, I'm the only one who can walk into you this often. You really can't ask for better. Stand up!" She poked him lightly with the tip of a crutch.

He actually laughed and agreed, standing up to dust off his pants. "Alright, alright, you win, Princess," he said. "But only because you are the only girl in here. Just do NOT stab my foot with your crutch, or you will forever go down in the books as the official worst dance partner EVER."

She acted wounded. "Oh ye of little faith, do you trust me so little to treat your feet with the utmost respect?"

He shrugged. "Well, actually…OUCH! Don't hit your partner with a crutch, that's just rude!"

"Oh, stop whining, you big pansy," she giggled. "Kay, how do we do this?"

He frowned at her crutch. "Um, well…."

"Hey," Ella glared, "It's rude to make your partner feel uncomfortable about her handicaps."

"Of course." He bowed extravagantly. "My sincerest of apologies, my good lady."

She patted his ducked head. "Much better. I have trained you well, grasshopper."

He straightened and took her left hand. "Keep dreamin'. Anyway," he continued hastily, "normally, you'd have on like, a ridiculously big and flouncy gown or something, so you'd have your other hand on the skirt to make it twirl or whatever. BUT since you've just got on boring, ordinary jeans, put your other hand on my shoulder."

She stuck her tongue out at him and did as he directed. He felt her put most of her weight onto his shoulder for support. "I happen to like boring ordinary jeans, thank you very much."

"Well," Trent said, placing his other hand on her waist, "so do I, actually. Alright, now we take quick little steps in time to the music that we're going to pretend is playing –one, two, three…one, two, three. Like that. See?"

"Yes," Ella said through clenched teeth, biting back the throbbing in her leg. Though raised and encased in plaster, the quick movements seemed to agitate it.

Trent stepped back. "Do you want to take a break?"

"Noooo." She shook her head and clamped onto his shoulder again. "I'm fine. Let's continue, Maestro."

The doctor smiled lightly and stepped in toward her again. "If you say so."

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"That was a bad idea," Trent laughed breathlessly fifteen minutes later, standing over Ella as she spread out on her back over the cold marble floor. "A very bad idea."

The farmer half-grinned and half-grimaced. "Yeah," she agreed, "but it was fun!"

He shook his head, still smiling. "Right. That's the way most of your ideas are going today…"

Ella rolled over to lie on her stomach, absorbing the stone's coolness. The agitation in her leg had evolved to shooting heat flashes and eventually she was forced to collapse onto the floor to cool off. Weakly, she fanned her legs and arms back and forth. "Dust angel…" she said tiredly.

"Wooooow. Really, Ella?"

"Really really." She cushioned her head on her folded arms and closed her eyes.

Trent sat down against a wall and rested his head against it. He was drifting off when Ella sleepily asked, "Why did you leave this beautiful place to ruin, anyway? …If you don't mind me asking."

The doctor exhaled heavily and ran a hand through his hair, deciding to spit it all out at once. "…When my parents left it to me in their will, I just couldn't bear to come back to the place."

"O-Oh," Ella stammered, shocked. "Goddess…I—didn't—" She paused, then whispered, "I'm so sorry…" When he didn't reply, she reached out and tentatively squeezed his hand. It twitched at her touch, but he didn't move it.

"It's okay." He didn't open his eyes. "It was a long time ago. They were working on a patient, and ended up contracting the same malady."

"That's awful," Ella whispered. "I can't tell you how sorry I am…did they at least cure the patient?"

Eyes still closed, Trent smiled ruefully and shook his head against the wall. "Almost."

She squeezed his hand again and said nothing. This was one of the saddest things she'd ever heard, and had happened to someone she knew and cared about…and could do nothing to comfort. "I wish I could do something or say something, Trent…I'm just so, so, sorry…"

"It's okay," the doctor said again. "And…It gave me one thing, at least."

"What's that?" Ella asked, tilting her head to one side.

He grinned lopsidedly. "Ambition."

Ella groaned softly and sat up. "To do what?"

"Become a doctor. I had good grades and everything as a kid; I was just sort of unmotivated. Everything I ever needed was right here at home, and I never had to work or wanted to socialize, so I rarely left this place." He tapped his fingers against the floor thoughtfully. "My parents always told me they wanted me to make something of my life instead of just living off their wealth, but…this is going to sound bad…I never really cared what would become of me, and they left pretty big shoes to fill. I was like, 16."

"Wow." Ella breathed, shuddering, knowing she would have been lost if her parents had died when she was 16. "But after that, you knew what you wanted to do?"

"Well, I always sort of knew I'd end up being a doctor. I just didn't care or have any ambition until then…which I guess means I wanted revenge," he grinned.

Ella smiled and dragged herself over to sit against the wall beside him. "Or you saw the medical void and decided to fill it, make a difference in the world."

Trent shrugged modestly. "You're giving me too much credit…I'm hardly noble, I don't really expect to make that much of a difference in the world. I mean, I want to do what I can, but realistically…" He shrugged again. Ella punched him lightly in the arm.

"Hey, you never know. Don't beat yourself up. I think anyone who grinds through years of medical schooling is noble," she laughed.

Trent wiggled a bit and smiled shyly again, which Ella realized was a _very _cute expression. "But there's one more thing that bothered me about their deaths," he added.

"What?" asked Ella, tilting her head curiously. Trent thought _that _was a very cute expression.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "My parents. They were, um…really religious…dragged me up to the Goddess Spring all the time to give offerings and pray and everything."

"Uh-huh, okay…"

"But, then they _died_ young. So…for the longest time, I didn't believe the Harvest Goddess jargon at all. It didn't make sense why two people who did everything right, worshiped her and benefitted humanity, would die early if a just goddess really existed."

Ella picked at the plaster on her cast. "Well…" she began, then sighed. "I can't tell you why, what the big idea is, but there must have been some kind of plan or trade-off. Hey," she grinned, poking him, "maybe the trade-off was turning _you _into a doctor. Maybe you're destined to find the cure for cancer or something!"

Trent laughed. "Yeah…sure. I'll keep you posted how _that's _going…"

"Wait, so you didn't believe in her existence at all until that night when we both fell into the pond?"

"Pretty much. But I'm still skeptical on whether or not she's almighty and divine and everything. I mean…she got herself banished and needs help from a mortal to bring her back? That's kind of pathetic." Ella whapped his chest with the back of her hand. "Hey!"

She laughed. "Way to offend the goddess, bro." Trent rolled his eyes, then Ella thought of another question. "Hold on, off-topic, but how did you find me here anyway?"

Trent rolled his eyes. "That? That was easy. I just thought of the last place in the world I'd want you to be, and went there."

Ella laughed. "Well, I can see why! But, good news is, I'm done torturing you now, so we can return to camp and continue torturing _me_…"

Trent stood up, dusted off his pants, and offered her two hands. "Oh, goodie. I'm trying to decide what to make for dinner tonight…trout, salmon, river trout…oooh, there might be rainbow trout if we're lucky."

"Oh, thank the goddess," Ella groaned, getting to her feet. "Fish! Just what I've been craving all day. Actually, you know, there's this really nice Inn that serves—"

"Hang on," Trent said abruptly, closing one eye and glancing over at her. "You rode your horse here, didn't you?"

"Uhm, yes…?"

"Ella. There weren't any horses out there when I tethered mine up."

Her mouth fell open, and she stared back at him. "O-Oh, crap…I—I didn't tie Oakley up."

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Elli yawned after the big meal of herb fish prepared by Basil, and started rooting through one of Trent's duffle bags. "No…I know it's in here somewhere…he never goes anywhere without it."

"What?" asked Hardy, who had just woken up.

The nurse stuck her arm inside and felt around. "His laptop! Basil and I are going to watch a movie on it."

Hardy glanced around. "But there's no wall to plug it in!"

"Well, we'll watch it on battery power!" She zipped up the bag and tossed it aside. "Next!" Basil passed her the next duffle bag from inside the tent. Hardy raised an eyebrow and went back to shoveling food into his mouth.

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Elli asked a few minutes later, still rifling through a duffle bag. "It's waaaay after dark. They've been gone for hours!"

"He's probably checking out every river and ditch for her, and she's sitting in a hotel somewhere," Basil chortled before Elli threw one of Trent's socks at him. "Hey!"

"Be nice, or next time it'll be underwear," she giggled. "Aha! Here it is!" Slowly, she unearthed a sleek black laptop from under a pile of collared shirts.

"Oooh, what's he got on it?" Basil came over and sat cross-legged next to Elli. "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen…Avatar… Indiana Jones… Star Wars… …ALADDIN?"

"Oh my gosh!" Elli giggled, bouncing up and down in her spot. "I LOVE ALADDIN! Let's watch it!"

"Um…okay," Basil laughed, "but, uh…why is it on his laptop?"

"Oh, probably because he's a big fluffy cupcake at heart. I don't know, let's bug him when he gets back!" She hit play, placed the laptop on the grass, and reclined on her stomach to watch it. Basil settled down beside her and rested his head in his hands.

They watched peacefully for a while, Elli occasionally glancing up over the screen to check if the two missing parties were back yet. Jasmine was just dismissing Aladdin from her balcony when two tired-looking horse silhouettes crested the dark hill.

Elli sat up, beaming. "Hey!" she called. The light of the fire illuminated the first horse, and she saw both Trent and Ella slumped sleepily in the saddle. Trent lifted his hand tiredly in greeting.

The doctor dismounted first to help Ella down, and then led both horses back to the tree before guiding her back to the campfire. They both groaned in exhaustion when they sat down a little behind the nurse and botanist, leaning heavily against the camp logs.

Elli turned around. "Welcome back, guys! You look beat down, are you okay? What happened?"

Trent's eyes flickered slightly open, and Ella rubbed her eyes. "Yes, thanks, we're fine…Can we tell you in the morning?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Oh," the nurse said, disappointed. "Um…sure." She turned back to the screen, watched for another moment or two, and then turned back towards them. "Hey, Trent? Basil and I wanna know why you have Aladdin on your laptop," she giggled.

Trent sighed deeply. "May," he answered, not opening his eyes.

"May?" Elli asked, confused. Then her face lit up. "Oh! May! You mean that weekend she was in the clinic, you downloaded Aladdin for her?"

He nodded very slightly, drifting off to sleep as he did so. Ella looked to be already asleep, her head resting lightly against his shoulder.

Elli snorted softly and turned back to the movie. Basil nudged her, and she nudged him back. "A Whole New World is starting," he whispered, feigning a super-excited expression.

The nurse laughed and poked his arm. "If you don't want to watch it anymore, since it's just us, we can turn it off."

"No, no no no. Who doesn't want to watch this? I love this part." He yawned and readjusted himself. "Look, horsies."

Elli giggled again. "And sphinxes."

"How romantic, right?"

"Totally. Who could resist a man who takes you on a carpet ride?" she whispered back.

Basil tilted his head to one side. "Uh, me. Trent too, probably. Now, a _princess…_"

"Don't forget Hardy," Elli laughed loudly, then covered her mouth with her hands and glanced behind her. Trent and Ella stirred slightly and then settled down again, unconsciously in an even cuter position. Elli pouted and turned back to glare at the movie.

Basil raised an eyebrow. "You know," he said, "Sometimes things don't always work out the way we think they will."

She sighed and watched Jasmine kiss Aladdin. "I know."

"But that doesn't mean they don't work out at all."

Elli turned to look into his earnest eyes. "O-Oh?" The botanist smiled hopefully and squeezed her hand as a light blush rose over her cheeks. Bashful, she buried her face in her hands and allowed herself to smile back. "L-Let's finish the m-movie!"

"Yeah," he agreed, settling down on the grass, his head propped up in his hands. Elli settled down closer to him. Basil, grinning widely, draped one arm around her shoulders, and she shyly wriggled closer. They finished the movie in silence, half-daydreaming and smiling until the end.

They watched the credits roll. Elli yawned widely and said sleepily, "It's a cute movie…"

Basil groaned as he stood up, yawning sleepily. "Yeah…but I like it even more now." He grinned lopsidedly at her, and she blushed furiously in return. "I'm going to bed now. See you in the morning." Quickly, he bent down and gave her a brief, sweet peck on the cheek. She turned an even darker shade of red.

"S-See y-you," the lightheaded nurse stammered with a silly grin. Still waving goodnight, she walked backwards to her tent and stumbled over a log. "Ahah! Clumsy me! Haha! Well, uhm, goodnight!" With that, she scurried (facing forward this time) into her tent. Basil chuckled to himself and headed back to his tent for the night.

Both of them forgot to wake either Trent or Ella.

But it was okay, since Trent woke up at around midnight because Hardy was snoring.

Loudly.

Trent blinked blearily, his head throbbing, and took a moment to figure out where he was. His neck hurt, and the wet grass had soaked through the seat of his pants, he realized, but he was still warm…

His eyes widened as his head snapped up. Ella was curled up against him, her head resting on his shoulder, her forehead almost brushing his neck when she inhaled. One hand clutched a fistful of his shirt, relaxed in sleep. Her chest rose and fell in time to her steady breathing.

He cringed inwardly as he figured out why his neck probably hurt so much…his cheek had been resting on the top of her head. Sighing lightly, he reluctantly willed himself to shift away from her and nudge her awake. As much as he wanted to just stay like that until the night ran its course, he knew it would be incredibly awkward if she woke up, or if Elli or Basil or someone came out.

Heaven forbid _Hardy _come out…he would _never _let Trent live this down.

The idea panicked Trent a bit and gave him the boost he needed to force himself to destroy the peace that had built up between them. Besides, she deserved a better night of rest. "Ella," he whispered, gently shaking her shoulders with both hands. "Ella, wake up."

She inhaled sharply and sat up to rub her eyes. "Huhhh…?"

Yawning, Trent grabbed her arms and helped her up. "Elli and Basil finished the movie and went to bed without us…."

"How rude," Ella yawned back, before knitting her eyebrows. "My bum is wet….what _time _is it?"

Trent studied at his wrist blearily. "Almost 1 am…"

"Oh…that's not bad…" The doctor glanced at her sharply.

"What, you often go to bed later?"

"Uhhh—no."

"Ella."

She lowered her head. "Yes."

Trent yawned widely. "I'll deal with you in the morning…come on."

"Wow," she murmured. "You _must _be tired, to let that go…"

He ignored the comment and walked her to her tent, holding the flap open for her as she clambered in over a pile of Elli's stuffed animals. The nurse was already curled up and fast asleep, cuddling a fluffy kitten. "Goodnight."

"Niiight," she called back. Trent let the flap fall closed and stood outside the tent, rubbing his eyes. He began to head back to his tent and suddenly stopped, his heart skipping a beat, and double-checked his watch. His mouth fell open.

_Oh, Goddess, I hope it's not too late…_

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**A/N: I know, I know….this is probably the longest chapter since chapter 13. Um, it's actually longer, I think… (by about 1k words….. :3). Thanks for trudging through it though, and if you get a chance, please leave me a review! Thanks mucho ^_^ :D**


	17. While You Were Sleeping

**A/N: Wow, okay, I saw this chapter completely differently in my head, but it came out…well, like this! I also didn't foresee it getting so long, haha. I guess that just means I have to push what I had planned off to chapter 19 (wow, I still can't believe how long it's getting :S is it getting too long?). **

**Yeah, so…I hope, I hope, I hope you like it! & thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 17! *insert big goofy smile here***

**Disclaimer: SURPRISINGLY, I still do NOT own Harvest Moon or anything related. Shocker from the last chapter when I said the exact same thing, I know.**

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Flower Bud Village was eerily quiet at night.

Trent urged his sleepy horse along firmly, cringing at the loud clopping sound of the hooves against the cobblestone path. All the houses were dark and the night sky was huge and vast and empty—no giant moon hung in the dark sky.

Perfect.

He guided the horse up part of the hilly mountainous area at the rear of the town before dismounting as the climbing got treacherous. _"Just go as far up as you can and follow the sound of water. When you get to a bridge, cross it, and enter the glen on the other side."_

After scaling a few rocky ledges and clambering along a long, bumpy path, he finally reached a long rope bridge. He tested his weight on it with a foot, and it creaked in weak protest but held firmly.

Despite this, he still didn't trust it and skipped across it as fast as he could. He found himself on a small plot of tall grass on the other side that led into a little grove, high above a roaring river. Taking a deep breath, he entered the sheltered glen.

When he emerged on the other side of the shoulder-brushing, lush foliage, he was face-to-face with a serene, tranquil fountain. In the centre of the pooling water, a grassy platform rose; standing on top of it was a stone statue of the Harvest Goddess, her face frozen in sadness.

But it wasn't the goddess statue he was interested in. His eyes were immediately drawn to the creamy white, delicate blossom blooming under the starlight. The fabled Midsummer Midnight orchid; known to most as a fairytale ingredient, the goddess had revealed to him that it existed in sacred places at, as its name suggested, midnight of midsummer's day. This was what he had planned the whole trip around, what he'd feared he was too late to find and could do nothing to stop the spread of dangerous infection along Ella's leg. He knelt and plucked the bloom from its stalk and gingerly placing it in his pocket, careful not to crush and waste any of the pearly petals.

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Trent quietly brushed the girls' tent flap aside, hoping he would wake up the right sleeping girl. He squinted into the darkness exhaustedly. His brain was on low power and about to shut down, and was throbbing dully, as if using all its energy just to stay on. He crawled in awkwardly under the flap, hoping he wouldn't step on anyone.

What he really should've been praying for was not to step on any_thing_. He crawled over to a pile of Elli's stuffed animals, thinking it was Ella, and a fluffy tiger he thought was her shoulder let out a loud and ferocious roar when he pressed it. He yelped and jumped away, and two silhouettes jolted awake and looked around in fear.

"AAH! Rapist!" shrieked Elli, hurling a stuffed elephant at his face after pulling her sleeping bag up to her chest. Ella sat bolt upright and skittered away from his lurking form, tossing a puppy with a hard plastic nose at him for good measure. The nose hit Trent square in the forehead.

"OW!" he roared, rubbing his tender head. "GIRLS! Calm down, it's just me!"

Elli froze mid-swing, clutching a parrot with a plastic beak.

"Trent?" came Ella's voice, mystified.

Someone ripped the flap open, and Basil and Hardy appeared at the entrance. Basil was wielding one of Ella's crutches, poised to hit Trent upside the head with it.

"Stop!" Ella yelled, and threw a fuzzy unicorn at him. It bounced harmlessly off his chest. Basil blinked in surprise and looked down at the stuffed mythical creature sitting at his feet.

"Uh?" he asked.

Trent turned around and grabbed the crutch from him. "You are _not _hitting me with one of my own crutches."

Basil blinked again and slowly lowered his arm. "What….why are….you…." Hardy rolled his eyes and gripped the botanist's arm to haul him away. "Come on…the girls are fine."

Elli giggled self-consciously. "Sorry!"

Trent sighed. "Does this mean the animal-throwing is over?" A stuffed bunny landed in his lap, and Ella giggled mischievously from the back of the tent.

"It is now~!" she laughed. Trent sighed heavily, but a smile tugged persistently at the side of his mouth. "And hey, don't diss the animal throwing. I totally saved your hide with that unicorn."

"_Totally_. Thanks so much, what would I do without you?" he grumbled, still rubbing the spot on his forehead where the dog's nose had struck him. He had shivers thinking about what the parrot's beak would have done to him.

"No worries," Ella replied cheerfully. "I got your back."

"Anyway…" Elli asked, settling down in her cozy sleeping bag, "what does actually bring you here, if you're not a rapist?"

Ella laughed again and scooted out of her corner. "Yeah, why? You look terrible, have you even gone to sleep yet?"

"Um…" He mentally kicked himself for not having thought of something earlier. "I…uh…I just need to talk to Ella. Uh…can you…" He indicated outside the tent with his head.

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh…sure?" He didn't offer an explanation as he helped her out and closed the flap behind them. Elli desperately wanted to eavesdrop, but the warm stillness of the night quickly lulled her back to sleep.

Ella stood awkwardly beside him, dressed in a loose tank top and striped shorts, self-conscious because he was still fully dressed. She clutched his arm for support and waited for him to speak.

He cleared his throat. "Um, I…uh…I found something to heal your leg."

Ella's face broke into a radiant smile. "No way! That's fantastic!"

Some of her energy rubbed off on him, and he managed a tired smile. "Come on." Wrapping an arm around her back, he half-lifted and half-escorted her to his tent and ducked inside.

The farmer crawled in after him and sat down on a blanket near the back of the tent as he picked up a bowl of something sitting on a makeshift table and stuck his finger inside experimentally. It apparently passed whatever test he'd given it as he scooted over closer to her and began to undo her cast.

Ella watched with interest as his expert fingers disassembled the cast with little mess, but her stomach dropped and her eyes widened in horror at what was revealed when the clean white plaster was stripped away.

Her shin was an absolute mess. The skin looked red and purple and mottled; dried blood surrounded the entire injury and a dull ache returned almost as soon as the doctor removed the cast. From her knee to her ankle, the leg was angry red and swollen. Trent immediately set to cleaning the wound, glancing up to gauge her reaction.

"You don't look very good," he told her. "Close your eyes or look away. It'll make this easier for you."

Ella swallowed with effort and tore her eyes away. "I was—just thinking about how much I probably need to shave that leg," she joked weakly. Trent snorted softly. "Okay, that was bad."

"It looks a little worse than it should," he added a moment later. "I think…do you remember that time awhile ago, when you milked the cow for the first time and she sat on you?"

Ella winced and grinned a little at the memory. "Do I _ever_." Then it dawned on her. "Oh…you think when I hurt my leg before…"

"Right," he said with a nod. "I think you _did _hurt yourself more than you thought, didn't do anything about it, and it came back to bite you, Princess."

Chewing her lip, Ella tore her gaze back to him. "I guess…"

Trent rolled up his sleeves and picked up the mystery bowl, sticking an entire hand inside and scooping out a handful of a creamy white, yogurt-consistency mixture. He slathered the substance over her shin, and Ella flinched automatically, expecting it to sting or burn or—or _something_.

It didn't. It had a cool, soothing feel to it, and her skin absorbed it almost instantly. No matter how much Trent piled on, there was always room for more. The pain instantly disappeared.

Trent grinned at her. "Your mouth is hanging open. Just thought you'd like to know."

She slammed her mouth shut and stared at him. "What—did you make this stuff? You could make a fortune!"

He shrugged.

"Oh right," Ella said, "I forgot, you already have a fortune."

Trent grinned. "It's not that. It's just a rare herb that's doing this, that's all. I didn't have to do much with it, really…"

"Really, what herb?"

The doctor shifted uncomfortably. "Um…its common name is the Midsummer Midnight orchid."

Ella giggled. "Right, yeah, that's a rare enough one. It must've been really hard tracking down a fairytale herb, Trent. I'm proud of you."

Trent smiled wryly to himself. Little did she know. "Aw, thanks, Ella. I'm proud of you too, for not throwing up on me."

"Aw, thanks, Trent."

"Aw, you're welcome."

"Aww."

"Awwwwww. Can we stop now?" he asked, laughing. "Or else this will go on all night. And I'm really.._really_…" He yawned widely.

"Aww, muffin," Ella laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. Have to get the last word in, you know?"

Trent had curled up on his bedroll, acknowledging she'd said anything only through his eyelids briefly flickering. With an amused smile on her face, Ella watched as he drifted off to la-la land. Then, she tried to stand up.

"Uh oh." He couldn't have mentioned that a side-effect of his miracle medicine was complete and total numbness, could he? Her leg was completely immobilized, not to mention heavy as lead! "Uhh—Trent? Trent!"

His breathing was even and full. She stretched as far as she could and tried to poke him, but the best she could do was brush his shoulder with her fingernail. Watching his peaceful face, she realized with a sigh it would be cruel to wake him up. Whatever he'd been doing, he probably hadn't gotten any sleep yet.

Defeated, she looked around and gathered some shirts lying around to bundle them into a pillow. It looked like it was going to be a long night.

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Birds were twittering happily in a tree somewhere over Trent's head, and a shaft of sunlight snaked in through the flap to warm his face. He yawned and stretched, feeling peaceful and happy and content with everything in the world.

Then someone tore open the flap, and the full force of the sun blasted down into his eyes. He groaned and covered his face with an arm.

"Have you seen Ella?" Elli's panicked voice asked.

"Whaaa..?" he slurred, sitting up, confusion clouding his mind and the old headache returning. "No…?"

"Ella!" the nurse shrieked, near hysterical. "We can't find her! Nobody knows where she is!"

His eye twitched and he flomped down on his bedroll again. "Oh, _Goddess_. I NEED TO GET THAT STRAITJACKET."

Elli tore off, calling the farmer's name. Frustration began building up inside the doctor—he was now thoroughly convinced that the little blonde's sole goal in life was to die. That, or to make his hair go grey at 27.

So he almost exploded when something brushed his foot and tickled him. He sat up, a curse hot on his lips, and almost choked on it when he realized it was a delicate hand, poking out from one of his shirts and stretching, that had brushed his foot.

The doctor sighed and tugged the shirt off her face, and sure enough, found Ella just waking up under a mountain of laundry. She blinked, looking confused, then smiled up at him. "Hi."

"Hi," he replied, dumbfounded. "You're not—"

"Who're you talking to?" a voice asked from outside the tent. The silhouette moved towards the entrance to come in.

Trent hastily shoved the shirt back over Ella's face, securing it down with his hands, and looked over his shoulder at Basil, who appeared at the flap and waited expectantly for a reply.

"Nobody!"

Basil looked suspicious for a moment, then shrugged. "Eh. Okay." He dropped the flap and sauntered away.

Trent gaped after him in a mild panic, not realizing he was smothering Ella until she started clawing at his arms. "Oh, sorry!"

She gasped for breath and demanded, "What was that for?"

"Well—the others are looking everywhere for you!"

"SO YOU DECIDED TO HIDE ME?"

"Shhhh!" he hissed, covering her mouth. "Yes! Because they can't find you in _here_!"

"MNNHH MFFMP!"

He took his hand off. "What?"

"WHY NOT?"

Slapping his hand over her mouth again, he hissed back, "_Because_! It would look bad! SO bad."

If she hadn't been so obviously annoyed at him, he would have laughed at her expression. "Ella" and "angry" just did not mix.

"Who're you talking to?" Elli asked, poking her head into the tent. Trent hastily sat down in front of Ella and blocked her with his body.

"Nobody!"

"Hmmm…alright," Elli murmured, looking at him suspiciously and backing out.

Trent leaned against Ella and crossed his arms. "It's like they almost suspect us… Anyway, we need to make a plan to get you to show up somewhere else."

Ella covered his mouth with her hands. "Shhh! They're suspecting _you _now only because they hear you talking when nobody's apparently here!"

He tried to shush her while muffled and covered her mouth again. She muffled back at him, and he didn't like her tone and muffled back at her.

"Are you alright in there, son?" asked Hardy's concerned voice from outside. "It sounds like you're gagging or something."

Despite her annoyance, Ella giggled under his hand. Trent muffled at her to be quiet, she was giving the whole thing away, and she muffled at him that he was giving the whole thing away when really, if they just told the truth, nothing would be a problem! Not that either of them had a clue what the other had said.

"You sound awful. I'm coming in," rasped Hardy.

"MMMM! MMM-MMM!" Trent muffled insistently. Hardy crawled in and froze at the scene before him, and Trent and Ella stared back wide-eyed, two deer in the headlights, both mouths covered.

"What's going on in here?" the older doctor demanded. Trent started to muffle something, then glared down at Ella. She took her hands away and began to work on prying his off.

Trent turned to face Hardy. "I put some salve on Ella's leg last night, and I forgot that it was going to make it go numb, so she had to stay the night. I didn't realize till this morning, and by then I'd already told Elli I didn't have a clue where Ella was, so I didn't want anybody hearing her voice or seeing her come out of my tent, so I was _trying_—"

The farmer finally succeeded in peeling his hands off her mouth and interrupted him. "Yeah, but _he _didn't have a problem talking and making it obvious I was in here! We could have just explained everything to them like we did to you, but nooo—"

"Okay, you know what?" he asked, turning back to face her. "Either they would believe us and have made a sport out of this for eons, which we'd never live down, or they wouldn't have believed us, which would be ugly and awkward and weird and a bone of contention for—"

"No!" Ella argued. "Honestly, you are the dumbest smart person! We all would have laughed—"

"You honestly believe—"

"TIME!" roared Hardy.

"SSSSHHHHH!" both Ella and Trent hissed back at him. He glared back at them and crossed his arms.

"How cute," he said sarcastically, "you're finally agreeing on something."

Both Trent and Ella began arguing with him at once.

"You're going to—"

"WHAT IF SOMEONE—"

Trent turned on Ella again. "What if someone, what, HEARD him? Right, WHO'S YELLING NOW?"

"YOU ARE!"

"NOT AS MUCH AS YOU!"

"YEAH, ACTUALLY YOU JUST YELLED MORE!"

Hardy did a facepalm. "GUYS!" he hollered. "You were just making so much progress by yelling at me instead of each other! Let's retrace our steps, shall we?"

Ella sat up beside Trent and crossed her legs, glowering. Trent was momentarily distracted. "Hey—you can cross your legs again."

Her eyes dropped to her legs. "Heeey!"

Trent smiled smugly. "You're welcome."

The farmer melted. "Aaww! Trent, you are my hero." She leaned over and hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry for calling you a dumb smart person. I love you~"

Trent hoped she didn't feel his heart lurch at the words, but he knew she only meant them in the friend sense. "Aw, you're welcome, I guess." He half-draped an arm around her shoulder and looked at Hardy.

"This is almost too syrupy for me to swallow," Hardy said nonchalantly, making no move to leave.

Ella rolled her eyes at him and rested her head on Trent's shoulder. "I'm still tired."

"Me too," yawned Trent.

"From what?" asked Elli's voice from outside the tent, sounding unimpressed. All three in the tent jumped and turned to look as the nurse and the botanist ducked inside; Trent and Ella reddened and disentangled their fail hug.

"Do you mean to tell me that we were searching everywhere for her when she was sitting in here the whole time?" demanded Basil.

Ella lowered her eyes, ashamed. "Well, there was a lot of arguing involved too," Hardy corrected, examining his fingernails.

"It's a long story," Trent said uncomfortably.

"I'll bet," said Elli. "We're listening. You can start with why you said Ella wasn't here."

"Well…..you see…."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Trent had apparently found whatever it was that he had come to Flowerbud specifically looking for—not that anybody knew what that was—so the group finally had the OK to pack up and leave the campsite. Basil and Elli cuddled together on Ella's horse the entire ride back, Hardy stoutly rode his palomino, and Ella and Trent walked side by side. Ella insisted that Basil and Elli take her horse purely because she was so thrilled to have her own legs back to walk on—and about the fact that she wouldn't have to eat any more fish.

It was nightfall by the time they reached the Valley again, where Elli, Trent, and Basil were going to stay the night. Basil was going to head back to Mineral Town with them later to meet Elli's brother and grandmother.

The five of them stopped by the Blue Bar for a meal on their return.

"Helloooo, weary travelers," giggled Muffy, leaning on the counter. "Did you have a lovely trip?"

"Yes!" gushed Elli. "The best one yet, by far!"

"Aah, travelers, my favourite," chuckled Griffin, coming in from the back room with his guitar. "Tell ya what. Drinks tonight are on me." He glanced over at Ella. "Yes, even for you, Blondie."

Muffy pouted. "I thought that was _my _nickname…"

Griffin spanked her bum teasingly as he walked by her. "I'll think of a better one for you, darlin'."

Ella raised an eyebrow and smirked at her flirty friend. "Oooh, Muffs, what happened while we were away?" she asked teasingly.

Trent came in then and looked over the empty seat between Ella and Basil. After a moment he picked Ella up from behind, placed her in the empty seat, sat down in her old spot, and smiled innocently at her. She shook her head and casually put her elbow on top of his arm like an armrest.

Now Muffy raised an eyebrow. "Oooh, I dunno El, what _did _happen while you were away?"

The farmer beamed. "Meet Trent: my own personal footstool, armrest, chair, table, or whatever suits me at the moment."

"It's very flattering," the doctor added sarcastically.

Muffy raised both eyebrows and turned to exchange significant glances with Elli and her handsome guest, but they were too busy giggling and whispering like schoolchildren. The barmaid rolled her eyes and tapped on the counter. "C'mon, Griffy, there are hungry people waiting~!"

"Darlin', I know!" the barman yelled back.

"'Griffy'," repeated Ella softly, grinning evilly at her friend. "Are you two an item or what?"

Muffy blushed lightly and lowered her eyes. "Kind of. Well, the fireworks festival is coming up, you know, so…well, I have a date!"

Ella's mouth fell open. "No kidding! You have one here too?" She turned to Trent. "Dude! Have you ever been to one?"

He stared back at her wide-eyed. "Nnnooo…"

"Oh, you have to go this year. You'll enjoy it, I promise."

"Is it a date night or something?"

"Yep," Muffy chirped happily. "It's totally romantic. You sit together on the beach and watch the fireworks in the night sky…there are couples all over the place, but you feel like you're the only two in the world…" The barmaid lost herself in the daydream. Trent shrugged and took a drink of his water.

"Do you want to go to the Fireworks Festival with me?" Basil asked Elli softly. The nurse threw her arms around him.

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask!"

Ella yawned widely and rested her head in her arms. "Did he ask her to a festival or propose to her…?"

"I know, right? GRIFFY!" Muffy hollered. Just that moment, Griffin came back out with platters of hot food and set them on the counter.

"Made y'all my special, since y'all look so tired," he drawled.

"Aww, Griffy, you're so sweet…" Muffy giggled, hugging him. "Eat up, ladies and gents!"

The five of them tucked into the platters of food eagerly. "No fish!" Trent whispered to Ella, who pumped her fist victoriously.

Muffy leaned forward on the bar again. "So, El, who's taking you to the fireworks festival?"

The farmer shrugged, chewing. "Nobody yet."

"Really? I would have expected someone to ask you by now."

"Well, let's not forget how much time she's spent unconscious or camping or buried under a barn…" Trent murmured. Ella elbowed him.

"Anyway," the barmaid continued, "I'd keep my eye on Kai if I were you. He's pretty hot, isn't he?"

Ella shrugged again. "Mnh." She swallowed. "Nice saying that while your boyfriend's in earshot, Muffs!"

The waitress blushed, the topic of her relationship still new and strange. "Heh-heh, yeah…Oh, and a piece of advice: the girls who don't get dates typically end up being shared between Kassey and Patrick. Trust me, I know. So I'd suggest finding a guy ASAP, girl."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Hardy, Elli, Basil, Ella, and Trent stood outside the Inner Inn talking late into the night. Hardy was the first to head back home, and then their number dwindled down to 2 when Elli and Basil went inside.

Ella yawned and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Well, we should probably get some sleep so we can get on the move early tomorrow…you have kind of a long walk."

"Yeah," Trent agreed, reluctant to go inside. There was a weird sort of happy, tensely excited, twisty feeling in his stomach, but it was kind of fun. "I'm not very tired though…"

"Liar," the blonde shot back. "You were practically falling asleep on me at the bar!"

"It was the alcohol," the doctor insisted, grinning.

She laughed. "We're never going back there again when Griffin says the drinks are on him."

"I didn't expect the Stone Oil to taste…like…_good_."

Ella made a face. "It doesn't _sound _good. Anyway," she said quickly, aware they were steering away from her original point, "it's late. But next time you guys come around, do you think the others would want to do a movie night or something at my place?"

Trent tilted his head and considered. "Uh, yeah. And if not, I'll drag them anyway."

"Okay," Ella agreed, smiling evilly. "We'll just stash them in a corner to cuddle or something if they don't want to watch. They can be our popcorn slaves."

"Deal. Let's shake on it." They shook, and then Ella pushed him towards the door.

"Go to bed! Goodnight!"

He opened the door. "Night, Ella."

"Oh, and, um…thanks for everything!" She grinned shyly, waved, and sprinted off towards her farm. Trent watched her go, a slight smile on his face.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

**A/N: Aaawwww, Trentttt. I really must find my copy of HMDSC, which I haven't seen in about a year now. Pretty sure I left it in a hotel somewhere *heavy sigh*.**

**Anyway, did you like? I hope so, but I'm sorry I didn't get to put more action or whatever in. But at least Ella and Trent had their first fight! ^^**

***finishes rambling* So if you have time, please leave me a review and lemme know what you think. Thanks for reading ^^ **


	18. The Meek Shall Inherit

**A/N: Hehe :) I had a lot of fun writing this one too. Please let me know what you think! I hope you like it!**

**P.S.: You are the best reviewers EVER. Special thanks to missbabblingbrook21 who never fails to leave me lovely reviews that make me very happy! Oh, and the butterfly thing? Haha I copied it off one of my friends' Facebook pages, so you are free to copy and paste it into your stories if you like! ^^**

**Also special thanks to Kerboku whose awesome reviews kept me writing earlier, and to OddChicken, whose review probably made my entire week. Haha. :) *Recruited one, w00t! fist bump* **

**So you may all consider this chapter especially dedicated to you, if you like it…and if you don't, well, I hope I write a better one for you then! :D**

**Thanks so much, everyone! Even you silent readers :P okay, I'll shut up now. Except for the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it. :S**

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"Lalalalaaa! Laaaa…lalala…LALA…laaaaa~"

Trent cracked an eye open at the sound of Ruby's cheerful, off-key humming that meant only one thing at the Inn in the morning: BREAKFAST.

He rolled off the mattress and pulled on a shirt, ran a hand through his hair and decided it wasn't too mussy, and turned to survey the room. He was the only one in it, but there were three other messy beds: Basil's, the one belonging to the regular visitor from Mineral Town (Sunday, so Rick?) and…one other.

He mulled it over for a moment before Popuri's squeal from downstairs confirmed two things—firstly, that it was Sunday, and secondly, that the final bed belonged to _Kai_.

That unkempt beach bum. Trent shuffled out of the men's sleeping room and was yawning widely when he collided with someone…or rather, someone collided with him. Someone small heading about a thousand miles an hour.

His first thought was _Haha, guess Ella must be here, _but he knew she had her own house in town, so it couldn't have been her…

"I'm so sorry! I should've been looking where I was going, I know…" came the familiar voice.

"Ella? ELLA?" Trent exclaimed, mid-yawn, so it came out sounding more like "Ewwa".

"Heh-heh…Morning…"

Sure enough, there she stood in front of him, bashfully scratching the back of her head. She was dressed in a tank top and jean shorts, probably ready for a day of work. "What're you doing here?" he asked, following her as she skipped down the stairs to the kitchen. She didn't get a chance to reply.

The kitchen was complete chaos. Kai was sitting on one end of the table, loudly telling a story, while Popuri sprawled out in front of him to fully listen (also on the table). Rick was trying to get her to sit "like a proper lady" and shooting Kai death stares while Elli bustled around after Ruby, trying to help cook, Basil kept trying to get her to sit on his lap, Rock's feet were propped up on the table as he shouted a greeting at Ella, who quickly sat down as far away from him as she could and looked exhausted already.

"Ella?" Trent blurted. "Don't you have a _house_?" He took the seat across the table from her.

"Well…" she began.

"She _did_ have a house," Kai interrupted, "but then the big bad storm came and blew it down. Remember the storm, Doctor?" he asked sarcastically.

Trent tossed a look at Kai and remembered vaguely the pile of rubble that was Ella's house when he went looking for her. That wasn't by any means what stuck out at him about the day, so he hadn't dwelled on it.

"Thank you, Kai," Ella snapped at him, and looked back down at the menu. Kai threw both Rick and Trent a what'd-I-do? look, but both just glared back.

"Kai, dear, get off the table and sit down like a normal person," Ruby chided in a motherly manner.

"The same goes for you, Poppy," Rick hissed, tugging at his sister's sleeve. She finally complied with a pout.

"So what can I get you dears?"

"Ella and I will both have the cowpoke breakfast," Kai cut in first with a huge grin. Ella looked up sharply from the menu and stared at him.

"What? But I want—"

"Trust me, you'll love it," Kai whispered, as Ruby took the next person's order.

"I told you, I don't like—" she tried again. But Popuri spoke overtop of her, asking Kai to continue his story, which he did with relish.

Ruby assembled the already-cooked meals and distributed them before disappearing into the lobby. "Enjoy, dears~"

Ella looked in annoyance down at the assortment of ham, bacon, sausage, and a few eggs on her plate. She pushed the meat away from the eggs, which she dumped a mountain of salt and pepper on and began slowly picking at. Trent raised an eyebrow at her, and in response she jabbed a thumb in Kai's direction and turned back to him.

"You haven't touched your potatoes," she whispered across the table.

"I'll trade them for your bacon," he whispered back.

"Deal." She pushed her plate across the table, and he sneakily made the swap before sliding it back. "Are you leaving right after the meal?"

"Probably," he sighed. "It's been awhile since we've been in Mineral Town, so we should get back soon to avoid any emergencies…"

"Emergencies? In Mineral Town?" Ella teased. Trent nodded gravely.

"Yes. You never know when there might be an outbreak of serious boredom. Or," he continued, "someone might eat a poisonous berry, or get trapped under a barn…you'd be surprised how many ways there are to have an emergency in a small enclosed area."

"Trent," Ella laughed, "no, I wouldn't. This is _me _you're talking to."

"Oh riiight," he said, nodding. "You're the one who managed all that."

Just then, everybody else at the table (except Rick) burst into peals of laughter at the ending of Kai's story.

"Ahhh," the beach boy sighed, "that was a good one, eh, Ella? Good times."

She stared wide-eyed at him and agreed slowly. "Uhhh, yeah. Good times. For sure. Definitely. Anyway, um, I better be going to check on my animals…" she stood up.

"I'll come," Trent offered.

"Me too," Kai added quickly, then turned to glare at the doctor, who rolled his eyes. Ella looked back and forth between them, then shrugged her shoulders.

"Whatever. It's not that exciting though…"

"YES IT IS!" Kai yelled, pumping his fist. "Feeding cows! Hugging chickens! Milking cows! Watering crops! Getting all hot and sweaty in the sun!"

Ella stared at him for a second after the last one. "Uh, yeah…maybe you should stay here…"

"NO WAY! Let's go, guys!" He wrapped one arm around Ella's shoulders and moved to put the other around Trent's, who cringed, and dropped it. "Eh, fine, let's leave the stick-in-the-mud behind then! Heh-heh-heh…" Cackling, he dragged Ella out of the Inn and down towards her farm.

"Waaaaiiitttt," the farmer whined as she attempted to turn around and wait for Trent.

"Nah, it's fine," the doctor said, waving a hand dismissively. "I have to pack anyway." Ella's eyes bored into the back of his head when he turned as she tried to send him the strongest "Don't leave me alone with him" look she had, but he completely missed it.

Takakura's house was in perfect condition, which annoyed Ella more than she cared to say, and her barn and chicken coop had been reconstructed as she'd requested. Gotz was crouching in front of what remained of her home as he made a few measurements.

"Wicked awesome!" Kai yelled. "Check it, Ella. That's _progress_. Maybe you won't have to stay with me in the beach house after all!"

Ella whacked him with a gardening glove she was putting on. "I wasn't going to anyway, Kaidan, _dear_. I can afford to stay at the Inn, you know!"

"For how long?" he asked mischievously. "Wouldn't want you going broke, even though I'd take good care of ya!" He surprised her by wrapping his arms around her waist and raising her in the air, twirling her around. Her stomach flipped at her footing being stripped away, but the airy free-falling feeling eased a happy laugh out of her despite herself.

"Urgh—okay, okay," she laughed breathlessly, getting dizzy, "that's enough. Enough! You can put me down now. Kai? Kai!"

He wasn't listening to her, laughing as he draped her over his shoulder and ran into the field. The only problem was, he was dizzy too, and he stumbled over a stray root before ploughing into the ground and skidding to a stop on his face.

Ella was luckier, although the fall almost dragged her shorts off. "Kai, you're stupid," she laughed as she crawled out from under his heavy body lying flat on the ground. "Kai?" He didn't answer. "Kai," she repeated, more urgently, shaking his shoulder. She really couldn't see how falling on your face could knock you out, but—

"Ahh! Gotcha!" the beach boy growled as he shot up and lunged at her. She shrieked, caught off-guard, and scrambled out of the way. He braced himself for impact with the field and looked up at her. "Heh, you have some pretty sweet reflexes, Eleanor."

She tossed a little handful of dirt at him idly, staring off in the distance, which he shook off. "Hey, Ella…I wanted to ask you something…about this Festival…"

Her heart skipped a beat at the Festival's mention. Was he talking about the Fireworks Festival? Her mind began to wander again. Wouldn't it be nice if…if…not Kai, but _he _asked her to go with him? She felt her face redden at the thought and she turned her face away. He might! And if he did—well—she needed to distract Kai before he asked her first…

"Ella? It's like a date—"

"Hey, Kai!" she interrupted loudly. "Look—one pineapple survived, and it looks like it's ripe! Come on!" She got to her feet and ran off towards it, and Kai had no choice but to follow.

"Ella! This Festival…"

She ignored him and bit into the fruit. "Mmm, it's good! Here! Try some!" Shoving it in his face, she thought with satisfaction that it would keep him quiet for a few minutes. Then the petite, suddenly hyperactive farmer ran away in the direction of the coop.

"WAAAYH!" Kai hollered after her through a mouthful of pineapple. "Waayh fo mehh!"

He finished off the pineapple and tossed the core into the grass. Ella heard him coming and panicked, searching the area in front of her for the next distraction.

"Anyway, as I was trying to say before you forced your last crop on me, which didn't make any sense by the way—"

"Kai!" she interrupted, shoving a chicken into his arms. "Meet Aza! She was my first ever chicken. Isn't she pretty?"

"Lovely," Kai agreed, clearly confused. The flustered hen flapped and pecked at the stranger holding her and Kai quickly dropped her. "Anyway—"

"And this is Hana…" Ella continued, forcing each chicken into Kai's hands. "This is Lucky, because she was the 13th egg…"

"Ella," Kai said impatiently. "I want to—"

"Oh, that's all the chickens, then," Ella said.

"Good," Kai said. "As I was—"

"But you haven't met my cows yet!"

Kai sighed. "Would you listen to me, woman?"

Nope, she wasn't about to. Instead she grabbed his arm and dragged him off to "meet" Macy, Nikah and Faye, who eyed him warily from behind their fence.

"I'm going to try another Miracle Potion on Faye," Ella chattered happily. "Last time…"

"What's a miracle potion?" Kai asked in obvious confusion.

"Oh, it's like an instant pregnancy for cows and sheep."

"Oh…" Kai said slowly, an eyebrow raised, and Ella realized for the first time how weird the concept was.

"Uh…ehehehe…yeah…um…moving on…" she murmured as she turned to head back to the southern part of the field to inspect her wreckage. Down the path from her farm, she could make out three figures standing in front of the Inn—Elli, Basil and…Trent…leaving so soon?

"Ella…" Kai began for the umpteenth time. This time, she didn't have to play at being distracted. "I wanted to ask you if you would maybe go to the Firewo—"

The blonde didn't catch a word he said. "Hey, it looks like they're leaving now. We should go say goodbye," she told him in a distracted tone and started walking away. Frustrated, Kai kicked a stone and followed her.

"Ahh! There she is!" Elli giggled cheerfully as Ella came into view. "Come here, you!" Ella grinned and hugged the nurse tightly, who planted a small kiss on her cheek. "Take care out here, mmkay?"

"I will," she smiled. "Don't worry, I've got Hardy."

"You need a whole medical team," Trent murmured, but before Ella could launch herself into his arms for a final hug, Basil moved in front of her and gave her a tight, back-cracking one of his own.

"Ugh…ow…bye, Basil," she said weakly. He grinned, ruffled her hair, and returned to Elli's side. Two down, one to go. Just him. She wanted to run at him at hug him tightly, but all her courage vanished and she was left just staring at her dirt-caked sneakers.

Trent surprised everyone by moving forward to hug her first. She buried her face in his shirt and hugged him back, and she could feel him smiling against her hair. When he put her down, she smoothed the crinkle in his shirt and returned the smile.

"Are you coming back for the Fireworks Festival?" she vaguely heard Hardy ask, but the topic of the festival snapped her back to reality. She stole a quick glance at Trent to see how he was reacting to the subject.

She caught him looking at her, but he quickly tore his gaze away and fixed it on Elli and Basil, whom Hardy had been asking.

"Oh, I don't know…" trailed Elli. "There's one back home too, so…you know…"

Hardy looked directly at the younger doctor. "What about you, son? Got yourself a date?"

Ella clenched her fists as her heart lurched. Now he had a perfect chance. _Ask me, ask me._

Trent shrugged offhandedly. "Nah."

Ella's spirits fell, and apparently her face did too, because Elli sent her an odd look. "Ella, you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied, wrenching her eyes back up to meet the nurse's and forcing a smile. "Fine, thanks!"

"Hm, okay," Elli said cheerfully. "Well, I guess we'll be off then! Bye-bye!"

"See you later," Basil said.

"Take care," Trent added, and followed the others down the path to the mountain road. Ella watched them go, a smile plastered to her face, and waved mechanically.

Kai grabbing her hand and hauling her back towards her farm jolted her out of her reverie. He pinned her back against the side of Takakura's house, his arms firmly securing both her shoulders down, and stared her square in the eye. Her heart sank; she had a bad feeling about this, and tried half-heartedly to wriggle away.

"Ella," he said in frustration, "Stop. Stop pushing me away. I have to ask you about the Fireworks Festival!"

She was completely cornered, and couldn't think of an alternative or any more excuses. "Fireworks Festival? They have one here?" she asked innocently, delaying, hoping he would attribute all the times she brushed off the subject to simply not knowing.

He did. His expression softening, he replied, "Yeah, they do. Listen, Ella. I think you and me should go together! The sound of the waves crashing, the beach…just us two…fireworks, duh…it'll be great! Whaddaya say?"

"Kai…I'd love to, but—" But what? She could hardly say she was holding out for someone else to ask her, which was the truth, but by now it was pretty clear nobody else, local or otherwise, wanted her for his date. Not even _him_. It was stupid and pointless to keep hoping, and she sure didn't want to end up as the shared date of the eccentric pyromaniac twins as Muffy had warned. He'd had his chance, and he'd passed it up, so why was she still hoping?

"But?" Kai prompted weakly, already looking crushed. Already defeated.

"But…you…didn't say please?" Ella finished lamely, cringing inwardly at her own pathetic answer. _Nice save, genius._

The beach boy misinterpreted it as some kind of coy flirting. He moved closer to her until he was just centimetres from her face. "Eleanor Teresa Kelley, would you please consent to be my date for this year's Fireworks Festival?" he murmured, his pineapple-scented breath warm against her cheek.

Ella hated the closeness and yearned to break away, but by now he had both her hands in his and was looking at her intensely, awaiting the answer he now expected thanks to her pathetic recovery attempt. It was almost unbearable, but she was too far in now to back out.

"Sure, beach boy," she breathed back in a sultry tone, unable to bring herself to repeat the word "date". As he moved in for the kill—er, kiss—she playfully pulled his bandana over his eyes and slipped away with a giggle.

"ELLAAA!" Kai yelled, but she could tell he wasn't angry. Unfortunately, she could tell he was completely "twitterpated".

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Ella looked in the mirror and sighed. Monday had flown by far too fast in her opinion, and now Tuesday evening—AKA, Fireworks Festival—was upon her.

The one good thing about today that Gotz had finally finished her house, and she was able to move back in. It was actually a vast improvement…instead of the old half of the house reeking of mildew and warped, damp wood and the other half smelling of fresh cedar, the entire place smelled of fresh cedar now. Van had taken pity on her and supplied her with a new TV (which was just as useless as the old one, but at least she could still play DVDs on it) and tools chest.

The farmer shook her drying hair out and tied it back in a ponytail. After a moment's thought, she pulled the heaviest, bulkiest and fluffiest hoodie she could find on over her halter top. The day had been blisteringly hot, but she knew the night on the beach was going to be cold, and there was no way she was going to cuddle up to Kai for warmth.

That would give him the wrong idea.

As if agreeing to be his date didn't?

She sighed again and was ignoring the last thought when three quick knocks came from her door. Ella glanced at the clock on her bedside table and read 6:03—way earlier than she was supposed to be at the beach for.

Leave it to Kai to come early.

She slowly turned toward the door, where three more knocks sounded. "I'm coooomingggg," she called sleepily.

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Trent stood outside her door, his hand poised and ready to knock, and mentally rehearsed his story for the millionth time. _"Hey, Ella…Basil and Elli decided to come down here for the Fireworks Festival and I—they—we—were wondering if you wanted to join us at the beach? No no…they won't mind at all…oh, you will? Great! Well, I know it's a bit early but do you want to head down now?" _Then, when they got down to the beach and saw Elli and Basil cuddling on the sand, he was fairly confident that she would say something like, "Oh, maybe we shouldn't disturb them, they look pretty happy!" that's when he would casually say, "Yeah you're right, why don't we go sit over there instead?" and point to some secluded little area of the beach. And if she didn't say anything about Basil and Elli, then _he _would, and…yeah. It would all work out.

He swallowed, brushed his hair out of his eyes, and knocked firmly on the door three times. He waited, shifting from foot to foot, but when nobody answered for a while, he knocked again.

Maybe she didn't hear him? Maybe she wasn't home? Why wouldn't she be home, was she passed out in her field? He quickly ducked around the side of the house to check her field, but it was clear of both farmers and animals. Then maybe she was already on a date with somebody? Maybe he was too late? He knew he should've just spoken up on Sunday…but it had taken an extra day to work up the courage…

"I'm cooomingggg," Ella's voice came from inside, sounding tired. Trent allowed himself to relax, but he got worked up again when he remembered what he was there to do. He straightened his collar, smoothed down his hair, and tried to strike a casual pose for when she opened the door.

The door opened and Ella slumped in the doorway. She looked exhausted. She dragged her eyes up to look at him, and when she saw him, he was stunned to see her entire face light up. "Trent! Hi! What're you _doing _down here, it's a Tuesday, isn't it?" And without waiting for an answer, she launched herself at him in a tackle-hug.

The doctor laughed and tightened his hold on her. "Yeah, I'm aware. But today's _special._"

She removed herself from him, but still kept a hold on his arm. "It is?" she asked, making a face.

"Blonde. Yes, it's the Fireworks Festival," Trent replied, feigning excitement. "Hooray."

"Yay," Ella agreed weakly as she remembered what that meant for her. He cleared his throat and tried to do the whole casual-pose thing again. "Um, do you need a bathroom or something? You look really uncomfortable, you can use mine—"

Trent's eyebrows knit. "Oh, uh, no, thanks, I'm fine. But, uh… um, I was wondering—well, we were wondering—Elli, Basil and I, that is—if you wanted to come down to the beach with m—us? I—we all came from Mineral Town to watch the fireworks here, and we weren't sure if you maybe wanted to join us, so I—we—thought we should invite—"

"Eyyyy! There's my girl!" came a masculine voice from the farm entrance. Trent whirled around in confusion as Ella cringed and willed herself to not run inside and bury her head in a pillow.

Kai strode confidently down the path to her house, wearing a pair of torn off jean shorts and a plaid button-down, which had been left unbuttoned to show off his toned chest and abs. When he reached the two standing outside Ella's house he put an arm around her waist and smiled blindingly at Trent.

"You weren't trying to pick up my date, were you?" he asked jokingly, and then laughed, as if the very idea was hilarious. "You look gorgeous, babe."

Ella laughed uncertainly and peeled his hand off her waist before turning to him. "This isn't a date, remember, Kai? We discussed this yesterday?"

"Oh, yeah, whatever," Kai grinned, rolling his eyes at her. "It's a date to me." She rolled her eyes back at him and started walking towards the beach without waiting for either of them. Kai jogged to catch up, but Trent lagged behind, dumbfounded.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Of _course _someone else had asked her, what was he thinking? Was he actually expecting someone like her—beautiful, charismatic, funny, intelligent, energetic—to still be free on the evening of the actual event? Had he been expecting her to _wait_ for him? Well, that was stupid too.

And Kai, of all people. _At least Kai had the backbone to ask her out honestly_, a nagging part of his brain reminded him scornfully. _She deserved that much_.

He followed the oh-so-happy couple to the beach, where Kai had set up a huge blanket, umbrella (fireworks were supposed to take place at night, but O.K…) and a cooler full of snacks. Again, he'd been upstaged and outclassed by a womanizing beach bum.

The sun was beginning to set. Trent didn't let himself watch Kai and Ella settle down together and instead scanned the rest of the beach.

Muffy and Griffin were curled up on a blanket near the back of the beach, sharing a bottle of wine. Elli and Basil were sitting off to the side of the beach, diagonal to where Gustafa and Nami stood casually. Neither Flora nor Carter had shown up yet, but Rock had Lumina out on the pier, and was making some sort of romantic fool out of himself, which the young girl was probably loving.

He watched Marlin and Celia arrive and sit down near the water, a distance in front of where Ella and Kai were sitting, right smack in the middle of the beach. As if Kai was saying, "Look at me, I won!"

Well, that was ridiculous. Neither of them probably had an inkling that Trent was competing…Trent himself didn't even know until late Monday night, when he'd come into Elli's room like a raving lunatic and convinced her to bring Basil to the Forget-Me-Not Valley festival. He couldn't even remember what he'd said, but he probably looked insane enough that Elli hadn't asked any questions.

He sighed and let his eyes rove over the beach once more, and this time, he noticed Hardy sitting cross-legged on a beach blanket near the back of the beach. Trent wandered over and sat next to his mentor, who looked surprised to see him.

"I didn't expect to see you today," he rasped. "I saw Elli and Basil, but I didn't think you'd be coming."

"You think they would've come without me?" Trent asked, confused.

"Thought they might have wanted to squeeze in two festivals. You know, Forget-Me-Not's festival is on a different day than Mineral Town's."

Trent's eyes widened as a new plan began to form in his mind. "Really?"

Hardy didn't reply for some time. The sun sank behind the horizon, and the beach was soon covered in a heavy veil of darkness. Trent let his eyes wander over to where Ella and Kai were sitting; the farmer had pulled her hoodie tightly around herself and was hugging her knees while Kai reclined beside her.

"You know," Hardy began abruptly, "we've talked about a great many things, you and I. But we never got around to talking about girls."

Trent was startled. "That's because neither of us has time for them," he said distractedly.

"Balderdash," snapped the older doctor gruffly. "Take it from me, _make _time for them. You don't want to end up like me, old, lonely, and out of chances, do you?"

Trent turned to look at Hardy, but his mentor was gazing off elsewhere. He followed his line of sight and realized that the man was watching a certain elderly lady sitting with her sleeping butler, a wistful look in his eye.

"You're not out of chances," he told him. _And neither am I, _he realized. Hardy closed his one real eye and shook his head.

"Oh, I am. But you're right, you're not."

The younger doctor shivered a bit, creeped out that Hardy had apparently read his mind. "Excuse me." He stood up, brushed off his pants, and strode over to Romana.

"Pardon me, madam," he murmured, resting his hand on her shoulder. The elderly woman jumped a bit and placed a hand over her heart before turning to glare at him. Her look softened when she recognized him as the boy who reminded her of her brother.

"Oh, hello, dearie," she gushed. "I must say, you gave me quite a scare! Sebastian being asleep and all, you never know what could happen!"

The first firework shot into the air and exploded loudly in a rain of light. The crowd looked up to admire its beauty, but Sebastian didn't even twitch. Romana patted his head. "Poor old cabbage."

"If you'd like some company," Trent said, gesturing discreetly at Hardy, "I'm sure Dr. Hardy wouldn't protest at your presence."

"Poppycock!" Romana laughed. "He wouldn't hear of it! Go on, shoo, you impertinent young man. I'm sure there's a pretty girl somewhere wondering where you've gone off to!"

_If only_. Trent smiled and headed for the path away from the beach. Before leaving, he turned and watched Romana peek over both her shoulders and wobble back to join Hardy on his beach blanket. He smiled. _Neither of us is_.

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**A/N: I hoped you liked it, even though it was um, a lengthier one…(but a lot of that is probably me yammering in these A/N's so I'll stop).**

**Please leave me a review and tell me what you thought, if you get a chance! Thanks for reading ^^ **


	19. Breakfast at Tiffany's

**A/N: *****skulks in from behind a wall* Ehehem...I didn't realize how late I was until I was going through my email today and saw reviews for chapter 19 from MAY. Yeah. That's bad. So I made this one extra-long! XD *slinks away***

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon! :x**

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"I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IIIIIS!"

Ella cracked an eye open and suppressed an angry groan. Just who exactly thought it was funny to stand outside her door at—what time was it, anyway? Blearily, she turned to face her bedside alarm clock, which proclaimed _12:08 _in cheerful pink and yellow tones.

She SO did not feel cheerful.

Wait, where was she? Oh, right. Who thought it was funny to stand outside her door at 12:08 in the morning AFTER AN EXHAUSTING FESTIVAL and belt out some romance-y song?

"I WANT YOU TO SHO-O-O-W MEEE!"

There were two people, Ella realized in annoyance. A man's voice intertwined with a woman's. Off-tune and sounding slightly drunk. She snuggled deeper into her pillow and hoped they would go away soon.

They did exactly the opposite.

Her door suddenly came flying open and three figures burst into her small house, singing louder than ever. The farmer shot upwards with a gasp and fumbled for the light switch, squinting through the darkness and panicking a bit. Was she about to be robbed by a drunken singing trio?

Good thing she didn't have anything valuable in the house! Or anywhere, really. How embarrassing…

"I WANNA FEEL WHAT LOVE IIIIS!"

One of the burglars found the light switch near her door before she did, and her houselights burst on in all their blinding glory. Ella moaned and pressed one hand over her eyes as she struggled to pull the blankets off with her other. "What do you want?" she cried in terror.

As an answer, a familiar sweet voice completed the verse in her ear: "I KNOW YOU CAN SHO-O-O-W ME!"

Ella leapt away in surprise and dropped her hand, blinking into the light. "E-Elli?" she asked, flabbergasted. Sure enough, the nurse was beaming down at her from the side of her bed.

Basil appeared at her side, one arm hanging over the nurse's shoulder. "I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IS!" he sang loudly. Elli slung her arm over his shoulder, and together at the top of their lungs they cried,

"I WANT YOU TO SHO-O-O-W MEEE!"

Elli broke away from her date, laughing breathlessly. "Whoo! That was fun," she giggled. She flopped down on her friend's bed and grinned up at her happily. "Oh, sorry. Did we wake you up?"

The grumpy blonde farmer refrained some saying, _What was your first clue?, _not wanting to ruin her friend's good mood. "I wasn't really getting much sleep anyway…" she trailed instead.

"Oh, good! Because we came for….MOVIE NIGHT!" Elli cried happily, throwing her arms up in the air. Basil grinned and turned to gesture at someone standing behind him.

Oh, yeah…there _were _three people that came in, Ella realized. She sat up straight and craned her neck to get a look over Elli's head, and her heart thumped heavily as Trent shuffled up to stand beside the botanist. He didn't look anywhere near as happy as the other two, she realized as he glanced over at her.

"Er, sorry, Ella…" he murmured. "This is kind of my fault…" She sent him a questioning look, and he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "I mentioned to them that you wanted to do a movie night the next time we were in town, so…" He kind of shrugged and spread his arms helplessly.

He looked so _sad_! She slipped out of bed walked over to him, stopping less than an inch in front of him and looked him over appraisingly. He had a rumpled appearance to him, like he'd fallen out of bed and thrown on the first shirt and pants he'd found. Or maybe not, Ella thought, examining his flannel pajama pants. When she looked back up to his face, he was staring back down at her with an eyebrow quirked. "Sizing me up for market?" he asked drily. His warm breath tickled her nose, and she lightly stepped to his side and slipped her arm through his in an effort to hide the blush creeping stealthily up her cheeks.

"Much better," she said approvingly, and rested her head on his arm as she yawned. The idea of watching a movie after midnight suddenly seemed like fun. "Had me worried…So…what's the movie…?"

Trent rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. He was far more aware of the warm pressure of her cheek against his upper arm and her fingers lightly resting on his wrist than he would have liked to admit. "Uh—um—it's Popuri's favourite movie that she lent us, I forget what it's called," he stammered.

"Mmm." The farmer closed her eyes and Trent felt her begin to slump against him.

"It's called 'When Love Blooms In Forbidden Gardens And You Mustn't Pick the Forsaken Bud'!" Elli said excitedly, producing the DVD from her bag. "Poppy said it's really good! Um…Ella?"

The farmer was slowly sagging to the floor. "I think she fell asleep standing up!" Trent said in amazement. Grasping both her shoulders in his hands, he gently shook her. "Ella…? Wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open briefly. "I'm awake…" she mumbled, struggling to open them again. The doctor frowned. "You can…let me go…"

"Nope," Trent said. "We're sitting down." Pulling her in closer, he collapsed to the floor with a _whump _and grinned evilly as she was dragged down with him, protesting all the way.

"Ow! You have bony feet," she complained, crawling off of the doctor and sitting down with her arms crossed beside him. "I'm never sitting on you _again_."

"Oh the horror," he returned sarcastically. "How will I ever go on?" She elbowed him lightly, but before long was slumped against his shoulder, asleep. Again.

"I know what'll wake her up," Elli said, her brow furrowed in determination. "POPCORN!" Tossing the DVD at Basil, she instructed him to put it in the player while she hunted for a bag of Ella's favourite food.

Basil knelt down in front of Ella's TV and fought with the DVD player for a few minutes until the welcome screen popped up. He inserted the disc, hit play, and sat back to make sure it started properly. "We're good," he called to the nurse, who was trying to figure out how to turn on the farmer's ancient microwave.

"How does this stupid thing work?" she called back. Basil stood up and wandered off to help her as the movie opened with a horsedrawn carriage rolling down the English countryside.

Trent nudged Ella gently. "It's starting," he whispered. She inhaled deeply and slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Yay," she whispered back. Her eyes narrowed as the Victorian-era woman on the screen gave a long, poetic speech about true love. "Is this supposed to be corny?"

"I don't know yet," Trent answered, frowning thoughtfully. "Probably?"

Ella was about to reply but was quickly distracted by a delicious scent wafting through the air. "Is that popcorn?" Nobody had a chance to reply.

"OH ROLAND!" cried the elaborately dressed woman in the movie dramatically, flinging herself at a suave-looking bandit. Ella's attention snapped back to the screen. She and Trent watched incredulously as the bandit removed his mask and whipped his golden hair around.

"OH CONSTANCE!" he growled back, catching her in a tight embrace and kissing her up her neck. "My beautiful Constance, more gorgeous than the sunset, fairer than a summer's evening, truer than the word of Honest Abe!"

"Did he really just say that?" Ella demanded, disbelieving. Trent snorted in amusement.

"Yeah, I think he did. What a guy."

"He's a keeper alright. That's my future husband."

"Oh Roland," sobbed Constance as he continued kissing her, "Were it only that we could be together! It is such a dreadful thought—marrying another and being forever separated! Oh! So dreadful! I shall simply die!"

"Fear not, my precious Constance," Roland cried heroically. "Our love shall prove stronger than any mere betrothal! We SHALL be together; I, too, find the idea of another gazing into your starry velvet eyes atrocious! WE SHALL FIND A WAY!"

The two lovesick characters carried on being woeful and dramatic for another few minutes before Constance was called out to meet her fiancé. There were a few more "OH, ROLAND!"s and "OH, CONSTANCE!"s before the bandit leapt out through her window to a horse waiting outside and galloped away.

Ella and Trent watched the rest of the scene in stunned silence. When it faded out, they turned slowly and stared at each other. The corner of Ella's mouth twitched.

"Oh, Roland," was all she had to whisper before they both burst out in peals of laughter. Elli and Basil sat down behind them and passed up a bowl of popcorn.

"What's so funny?" the botanist asked, tilting his head. The movie quickly answered his question when Constance's fiancé, Regis, made his appearance, and the high-born lady gave another long speech about true love and how nobody could force her into "the shackles of wedlock" with Regis.

Basil let out a loud guffaw. "Is she SERIOUS?"

Laughing again, Ella could only nod and gasp out, "I th-think s-so!"

The movie was so bad that it was hilarious. Roland, it turned out, was a bandit lord with a heart of gold who had renounced his ways in order to win over his lady love, Constance. But of course, she was a noble lady and had been betrothed at birth to Regis, who was a nobleman twenty years her senior and eager to throw Roland into the slammer.

It got to the point where Ella would cry "Oh, Roland!" dramatically every time the bandit made an appearance, and Trent would mimic the bandit's growl to reply "Oh, Constance!" whenever the lady fluttered onscreen. The farmer at his side, Trent was happy to note, was now fully awake.

The plot became so cheesy and predictable that the two of them began making whispered bets on what they thought was going to happen next. The person who had won the most bets at the end, they agreed, owed the other one favour.

1:30 a.m.. Basil and Elli had fallen asleep half an hour earlier, entwined in each other's arms, in a pile of blankets that Ella had produced from her closet. Now the TV screen flickered over only two faces: hers and Trent's. They watched with amused interest as Constance was forced into an extremely over-the-top wedding gown, sobbing, finally about to marry Regis after he'd had Roland arrested—and, she believed, executed.

Trent leaned over to the farmer. "What are you betting will happen?" he whispered, his mouth hovering centimetres from her ear.

"I bet our hero Roland is going to burst in, guns blazing, and rescue her at the altar right before she takes her vows," Ella whispered back as she turned to face him. She froze, becoming aware of just how close he was to her—a sheet of paper would have barely fit between their noses, and their lips…

Trent jerked away abruptly and swallowed. His throat had suddenly gone dry and his face felt warm—he was grateful for the darkness. "I bet she's going to have a breakdown at the altar, run out crying, and Roland will appear to save the day," he continued stoically, his voice a bit hoarse.

Ella was quiet. Trent stole a look at her over his shoulder to see her eyebrows knit in concentration and her eyes focused on the movie. He turned back to the screen, fidgeting slightly and frowning. _We were just too close—she can't be upset at that_, he reassured himself. If he'd allowed his gaze to linger on her, he might have done something he'd regret and shattered their friendship.

In that moment, Trent realized with a pang what that would have meant for him. If he lost her…She meant—a lot to him, now that he thought about it. He hated seeing her with Kai; was that jealousy? Or was he simply looking out for her as a friend would?

No, he decided. He wouldn't feel…_anger _at seeing Kai hanging around her, or the hurt he'd felt—like a punch to the stomach—when he realized they were attending the festival together, if it were merely friendly protectiveness. It was, he hated to admit, something more.

And—he didn't want to lose what he had. He loved making her smile, joking with her, knowing she actually wanted to spend time with him. Him, the boring doctor, whom everybody else only hung around long enough to get their prescriptions and then left!

He hadn't been spending much time in the Clinic since he'd met her. He should be at the Clinic now, for the Goddess' sake! But no, he'd gone crazy and insisted they all come down to Forget-Me-Not Valley so he could pester her some more. She made his palms sweat and prompted a blush just by sitting too near. She'd eased his childhood sob story out of him—not even Elli really knew all the details—and then made him teach her how to _dance_ with a broken leg. She ate berries she knew nothing about, risked her life to save her animals, fell off of high staircases, sneaked around with IV stands and gave him concussions, mistook him for salesmen, saved Harvest Goddesses, and walked into him about twenty times a day. She was in parts awkward, energetic, funny, playful, sweet, and industrious. She was _insane_.

And she was also kind of the best friend he'd ever had.

Yet he wanted more?

"OH, ROLAND!" Ella suddenly cried, throwing herself at Trent and burying her face in his chest. He fell backwards onto the floor and stared at her in surprise as she snuggled up beside him. Her eyes danced triumphantly as she added, "You lost, by the way. He ran in and shot our buddy Regis, got the girl, and they rode off into the sunset. It was all very romantic. But I don't think you were paying attention."

"I was too," he argued childishly, sitting up again. Ella, to his secret happiness, nestled in under his arm and looked back at him sceptically.

"Oh yeah? Then what happened?"

Trent cleared his throat. "Roland ran in and shot our buddy Regis, got the girl, and rode off romantically into the sunset."

She glared, aware he had just repeated what she'd said back to her. "What colour was his horse?"

Trent blanked. "Uhhh…White?" he guessed hopefully. It made sense to him that the romantic hero would have a white horse. Symbolism!

"Roan!" Ella corrected. The doctor frowned at her.

"Roan?" he repeated. "What colour is _roan_?"

"It's a mix of red and white hair."

Trent exhaled, blowing his already unruly bangs askew. "If I'd seen it and said pink because I've never heard of roan, would I still have been wrong?"

"Yep," she said, fluffing a pillow, "because I won. Nyahahahaha."

"You won the battle, but not the war," Trent murmured. She glanced up, her brow furrowed. A sinister smile crossed his face as he leaned in and explained, "I have one more point than you."

The farmer's eyes narrowed at him. "Darn you, Trent," she said grumpily, and hit him with a pillow. He yawned, unfazed, and settled back down on the floor. He added _feisty _to her list of characteristics and smiled into the blanket. "Wait," he heard her say suddenly. "Are you all sleeping here?"

Groggily, he propped himself up on an elbow and looked over Basil and Elli. The botanist snored lightly and kicked a foot. "Looks like it," he said, then smiled sweetly at her. "So sorry to intrude."

"I bet you are," she scoffed.

"Do you?" he said. "That's minus one point for you. Jeez, Ella, you really suck at these betting games."

"Hey! That's not fair! Doesn't count! That was sarcasm, you moron!"

Smiling lightly, he snuggled back into the blanket. His secret smile widened when she nestled down next to him, using his arm as a pillow, and yanked half the blanket off of him. "Blanket hog," he heard her grumble into his shoulder.

"Good night, Ella," he murmured into her hair. She huffed.

"Your feet are bony AND cold."

Yes, he decided with resolve, he _did _want more.

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_COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOO!_

_COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOOOO! _

_That's really obnoxious_, Ella thought in annoyance. _I don't even have a rooster…_

A loud clatter and crash startled the sleepy farmer upright to hit her head on the table above _hard_. Rubbing her head and grumbling, she glanced around for the source of the commotion—she spotted it when it came rattling out from behind her bed. Spinning around on the floor was the demented plastic rooster alarm clock her mother had bought as a joke; it'd obviously vibrated off the bedside table and onto the floor.

"Wha-wassat?" asked a groggy voice from above her. Blinking blearily, Ella squinted and made out two human-sized lumps lying on the floor in a mess of blankets. One was sitting up and running a hand through his messy brown hair; Basil, Ella realized.

Oh. OH. She squeezed her eyes shut and let herself drop back down to her pillow, which released a weak "oof" when her head landed on it. Pillows weren't supposed to do that…She opened her eyes to see two dark angular ones staring accusingly back at her, barely an inch from her own.

"It's stuffy as a church in summertime in here!" Elli's voice declared. "I'm going to open a window."

"Okay," Ella answered, not breaking eye contact with Trent. He shifted over onto his back and tried to free the arm that the farmer had pinned down before standing up. She let it slide out from under her but grabbed his hand before it got away, meshing her fingers in between his. "Help me up?"

The doctor rolled his eyes but humoured her. "G'morning to you too."

"Yep!" Once on her feet, she yawned and stretched her back. "So who's up for some breakfast?"

"Oh…" Elli said slowly. "We were going to eat at the Inn…Ruby had something prepared for us. Is that okay?"

"Oh." Ella pursed her lips. "Yeah, of course! See you later!"

"What time is it?" Trent inquired as the other two left, his brow furrowed. Ella glanced at her watch.

"Ooh…8:30…no wonder my emergency alarm went off…"

Trent jerked his head in the direction of the plastic rooster. "You mean that thing?"

The blonde nodded, looking over her friend in concern. "Are you okay?" she asked finally.

He grimaced slightly. "I feel a little off, but nothing too major."

Ella frowned and felt his forehead. It was warm to the touch. "Do you want to lie down?"

He shook his head. "No, I—it's fine. So…you were saying something about breakfast?"

Brightening, Ella nodded. "Yeah! I'm glad someone's sticking around with me. Come on!" She eagerly grabbed his hand and hauled him out the door.

"Where are we going?" the doctor asked, now thoroughly confused. "I wanted breakfast!"

"Oh, you're getting breakfast all right—the old-fashioned, homestyle farmin' way!" Still dragging him along in her eager wake, she began to skip merrily across her field. Trent decided he didn't like being dragged and quickly matched his pace to hers.

"What is this 'homestyle farmin'' way?" he demanded. "Are we going to Cracker Barrel or something?"

"What? No!" she tossed back at him with a grin and a quirked eyebrow. "In case you haven't noticed, we're _on _a farm!" The petite blonde abruptly slowed down, and Trent realized they were standing in front of a chicken coop. He noticed the smell first.

"Whoa." He had to blink several times to clear his eyes, which had started to smart. The acrid smell burned into his crinkled nose.

"Newbie," Ella grinned. Enjoying his scrunched-face expression, she opened the door and led the doctor inside. A small flock of hens gathered at her feet and clucked happily. "Good morning, ladies! Sorry I'm late."

She distractedly released Trent's hand and knelt down to cuddle some of the chickens before heading over to a dispenser, where she grabbed two fistfuls of feed and spread them at the hens' feet. Fluffing their feathers contentedly, the hens set down to eating as Ella stealthily crept to each of their roosts. She gathered a smooth, cream-coloured egg from each and placed them in a basket by the door. "Now, run for it!" she whispered, and gave him a playful shove out of the coop.

"Whaa—" He staggered out and regained his balance in time to throw a reproachful look at her over his shoulder.

Giggling, she followed him out and shut the door securely behind them. "They get really grouchy when they notice their eggs are gone—not like they'd ever hatch anyway," she explained while rolling her eyes. "I don't have a rooster!"

"Wait—what? Then how does the incubator work?"

"I have no clue and honestly, it's another one of those mysteries I'm happier leaving unsolved. Like Miracle Potions." She shuddered. "Speaking of, next on our tour is the beautifully reconstructed Barn, home to three marvellous cows—one of which will soon be having a second attempt at offspring!"

"Oh, no," groaned Trent.

"Oh, yes," Ella grinned evilly. "Right this way!" When the doctor didn't trudge along quickly enough to suit her, she linked their hands again and hauled him after her. "Come on! The longer you prolong the tour, the longer you delay breakfast~…AND the more you make me hold your hand."

Trent hadn't been thinking much of it, but as soon as she pointed it out, he felt a self-conscious sweat break out on his palms. _Great. Fantastic._

Flustered, he struggled to come up with an acceptably witty reply (something about cooties?), but luckily he didn't have to—they'd reached the barn!

Ella grunted as she pushed the barn door open with a shoulder and pulled him inside. She severed their link again and ran to hug all of her cows, murmuring apologies for her lateness as she brushed them down. Trent couldn't help but smile: little as he knew about animal care, even he could tell she had a way about her.

Then, she knelt at each cow's side to expertly milk them. When the milk was bottled, she carried the three bottles over to the far end of the barn. One bottle she placed in an opening of a tall, barrel-like object; the second she placed in a different barrel-like object; and the third she tucked into her basket. With a splutter and a cough, the first machine cranked out pre-packaged cheese and the second produced pre-sealed butter. Ella dumped the cheese in the shipping box and added the butter to her basket.

"'Kay, let's go," she said cheerfully. Trent perked up.

"Food?"

"Yes, food," she laughed. "Race you back to the house? Winner gets one point?"

Trent forgot his nausea. "You're on."

They both burst into the small farmhouse at about the same time, chests heaving and proclaiming themselves the winner loudly over each other. Ella claimed the victory after pointing out that she had tied him while carrying a heavy basket of breakfast-y goods. "Now sit down at the table and wait for your freaking breakfast!"

Trent sighed, sat down obediently, twiddled his fingers, got bored, and stood up again. "I need something to do—give me a job!"

"Find the cure to cancer," she replied cattily with her back still to him. Trent scowled.

"Okay, fine. Consider it done. Now give me a breakfast-related job."

"Don't let the toast burn." She turned to look at the toaster, which had popped up the slices of crunchy bread while they were running around outside. "Oh, look at that, the toast didn't burn! Good job, now sit back down."

"Ella!"

She turned and pointed a frying pan at him, changed her mind, and used it to gesture at an apron hanging on a hook. "Alright, alright! But you have to put that on."

Trent was mystified, but he didn't argue. Awkwardly, he tied the strap around his torso and rolled up his sleeves. "Why? Are we baking cookies?"

Ella smirked with her back still turned to him. "No. I just think it makes you look funny." He scowled at her, and she beamed back and added, "Funny, but cute."

Trent opened his mouth to give her a scathing reply, but just then someone knocked on her door. The farmer blinked slowly as the gears in her brain began spluttering to life and dredging up the memory from the night before. When Kai'd threatened—er, offered—to ambush—er, visit—her the next morning. This morning. Today. Now.

Oops.

He watched as the incredulous expression on her face dawned with realization, and was quickly replaced by weariness. Heaving a sigh, she trudged over to open the door. Shafts of sunlight spilled into the room and illuminated a very familiar figure.

"Heeeeyyyy, Ella! Nice get-up ya got on there, babe."

Trent cringed; he'd recognize that boisterous, obnoxious voice anywhere. _Kai_, back for more.

Ella smiled uncertainly, blushing at not having changed out of her pyjamas, and stepped aside as Kai walked in and looked around cheerfully—that is, until his eyes came to rest on Trent standing at the kitchen in an apron. His eyes narrowed. _Trent_, still hanging around.

Trent returned the look with two narrowed eyes of his own. "Hello, Kai."

Kai nodded. "Doctor." He tilted his head at the doctor's outfit. "Did I interrupt a baking party or something? I never took you for one to like baking muffins and cookies, Doc! Man!"

The dark-haired man glowered at the tanned man irritably, but before he could reply, Kai turned his attention back to the farmer. "Hey, Eleanor…" he began smoothly, slipping her hand in his. She raised an eyebrow at him, and her face quickly drained of all colour when he knelt smoothly before her and reached into his pocket. "I have a little something for you I picked up in town…"

Trent looked on in disbelief, his mind racing before she even had an idea what was going on.

But the farmer caught on soon enough. Her mouth fell open and her breath caught in her throat as she stared at him, disbelieving, watching as he drew a cyan blue feather out from his back pocket. She squeezed her eyes shut. _Is he really—oh no. No no no. Oh no. This can't be happening. It's—it's a bad dream_.

"Eleanor Teresa Kelley, would you do me the honour of becoming my bride?"

Something in her mind twigged. Okay, Kai would definitely never say that. He'd say something like, "Yo babe, let's get hitched! Down for that?" She snapped her eyes open and pulled her hand away, glaring at him. "What the hell, Kai?"

The beach boy's face crinkled with glee as he took in her expression and he toppled over to the floor, cackling. "Oh, MAN! OH MAN! You should've seen your face! AHAHAHA!"

Ella rolled her eyes angrily and stepped over his writhing body. "Goddess, Kai. I could just about murder you. Viciously." Trent stepped over to join her at the sink and raised an eyebrow at the beach boy, outwardly unperturbed at the whole charade.

Regaining his breath, Kai sighed contentedly and propped himself up on one arm. "Aaah, that was good. That was really good. Totally worth the money. Anyway," he said, scrutinizing the two of them again, "Mind explaining why _you _are wearing pyjamas this late in the day and why _you_ are wearing an apron?"

Ella clanged a few pots and pans around as she set up, still miffed. "Baking party. You weren't invited," Trent said pointedly. Ella whacked him lightly with a frying pan before placing it on the stove. "Ow."

"Yeah, we were just whipping up some breakfast," she corrected. Kai raised an eyebrow but was quickly distracted at the prospect of cooking.

"Hey, slick!" He looked around and saw the eggs, butter, milk, and toast out on the counter. "Leave it to me, Ella! This will be one breakfast you'll _never _forget. Go sit down, I got this!" He began rummaging around in her scant cupboards for supplies.

"I think we can handle this by ourselves," Trent said shortly as the farmer whacked Kai in the back of the head with a spatula, telling him to quit going through her things.

"Oww." Kai rubbed the back of his head and frowned at Ella. "Crazy lady with a spatula! Chill out!"

"Ella, go sit down," Trent said, jutting out his jaw stubbornly and glaring at Kai. "Don't bother yourself with this, I can—"

"No!" the beach boy interrupted. "_I _got this." He hip-checked the doctor away from the oven and pursed his lips. "I definitely have more experience! Besides, you'd probably end up serving us all cold medicine or something, dude."

"Excuse me?" demanded the doctor, crossing his arms over his apron'd chest. "I had to cook for myself all through university. I think I learned a thing or two."

Kai cracked an egg on the rim of the frying pan and listened appreciatively as it sizzled. "I know what you're saying: you're rusty," he replied in a falsely sympathetic tone. "Just take it easy. I promised her I'd make her breakfast!"

"_We _were going to make breakfast," Trent insisted. Neither man seemed to notice that Ella had plopped herself down at the table and was watching the floor show with an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"No! Let me!"

Trent picked up an apple that was sitting on the counter and began swiftly dicing it up into pieces. "I'm sure she won't—ouch!" he hissed through his teeth, dropping the knife onto the counter and gripping his arm.

Ella stood up and walked over to peer over his shoulder, tsking. "Jeez, Trent. How did you manage—" She stopped short when she caught sight of the long red gash running down his forearm, starting at the base of his wrist and ending just before his elbow. Beads of blood poked through the broken skin and the doctor hissed a few choice words as she spun him around to look at it more closely. "Trent!"

"Well," he murmured, "it's kind of ugly. Got any, um, bandages…?"

"Probably," she said faintly, steering him away from the counter. The metallic scent of blood in the air was enough to make _her _feel queasy. "Sit down while I go find it; I don't want you bleeding all over my scrambled eggs."

"Oh," Kai said, "you wanted them scrambled? They're…kind of…sunny-side up."

Ella shook her head distractedly. "That's fine…um…" She cast her eyes around helplessly, hoping to find a first aid kit or something conveniently in view, as Trent gripped his arm and pressed it against the crisp white apron. She jogged into her bathroom and ripped open all the drawers but found only Kleenex, toilet paper, and—AHA! The gauze from the cactus he'd given her on her birthday!

"The gift that keeps on giving," she murmured to him as she came back out with an armful of the stuff. He smiled faintly and held out the arm as she quickly bandaged it. "You don't look too good…does it really hurt?"

Trent shrugged half-heartedly. "It's not that…I just sort of feel worse…"

The farmer frowned and pressed a hand to his forehead, which felt too hot in her humble opinion. "Do you want to lie down now?"

"Too bad!" Kai barked as he distributed plates around the table. "Food's up!"

The doctor frowned a bit at his plate, his face turning a light shade of green. Ella's frown deepened. "Trent? I think you should—"

He couldn't wait for her to finish. Moaning, he got to his feet and dashed into the bathroom. Kai's eyes widened and he stared at the blonde, who was gaping after the doctor. "Wow! That came on fast," he remarked, before stuffing his face with a forkful of egg.

Ella nodded worriedly. "I hope he's okay…"

Moments later, Trent dragged himself out of the bathroom and collapsed onto her bed, his eyes closed, and let out another groan. Feeling Ella's concerned eyes on him, he inhaled deeply and attempted to strike up a conversation. "So…Kai….you….got a blue feather…just to prank Ella?..."

Kai swallowed and then beamed evilly. "Among other people! Popuri's birthday is coming up—wouldn't that be hysterical?" He cackled again at the idea.

Ella's eyes narrowed—she had a feeling that the pinkette wouldn't take finding out the proposal was a joke as well as she had (as in, extremely well). "Kai, um, that's actually a horrible idea."

The cook grinned quirkily at her. "Aw, Ella, don't worry! I'm not seriously giving it to her! She'll think nothing of it!"

"Kai…" Trent emitted with effort, "That's…really a bad idea…"

Discouragement from his nemesis was all the encouragement that Kai needed. "Yeah, well, that's what _you _think." Frowning, he stuffed a whole piece of toast into his mouth.

"She…won't think it's funny…" the doctor mumbled with as much conviction as he could muster.

"Please don't hurt her like that," Ella said pleadingly. When Kai merely shrugged, she glared at him fiercely. "Kai. I swear, I will _tell _her!"

"Whatever," he mumbled grumpily. "It was a steal at this price anyway…"

"Price?" the farmer questioned. "You bought it?"

"Um, yeah…?"

"But," she spluttered, "isn't it like, a promise of eternal devotion and love and everything? They can't just put that up for _sale_! You have to—you have to earn it!"

"Earn it?" Kai asked. "What do you mean? They just put it up for sale, like an engagement ring. Why would you have to earn it?"

"Because of the legend," she explained patiently. "I can't believe that Jeff put one up for sale!"

"How else would you get one?" asked Kai, amused.

"With—the blue bird dropping it, and everything," she murmured, staring into her glass of milk. She felt more ridiculous by the second. Didn't anyone know about the legend anymore…?

"That's barely practiced these days," Trent said hoarsely from her bed. He sat up with a groan and massaged his head. "Mostly, superstores just carry them…easy, fast, and cheap."

"Like fast food," Ella grumbled, crossing her arms. "That's kind of insulting. I wouldn't accept any feather just bought at the local supermarket!"

The doctor grinned, amused. "Are you sure? Under no conditions? If the _perfect man _proposed to you with one?"

At the last part, Ella scoffed loudly.

"Ahh, she's a sceptic," Trent announced playfully before a sudden wave of nausea forced him to lie down again.

Kai leaned forward on the table, grinning. "Terrible, truly terrible."

"Not a chance," Ella maintained. "Even if this 'perfect man' existed. Honestly, it's insulting to be offered some cheap, mass-produced feather. I wouldn't take it!"

"No?" Trent prodded teasingly, then winced. "What if you'd been going steady with some tall, handsome, charming guy who had it all…like, I don't know, what do girls like? Money?"

Ella nodded eagerly.

After a few steadying breaths, Trent felt some of his strength return. "Really?" Ella watched him carefully over her shoulder as he propped himself up. "Okay, so let's say he's devilishly good-looking, richer than Bill Gates and George Lucas combined, witty, high-class, buys you everything you want, and tells you on a daily basis how beautiful, smart, funny, and generally great you are—what am I missing? Oh, I know. He brings you out on all these romantic dates and never cooks you fish. He's a—I don't know. A firefighter. And he dresses immaculately and wears very classy shoes. And he never throws up in your bathroom while you're trying to eat breakfast. Yes?" he asked, when Ella's hand shot up excitedly.

"Can he have a British accent?" she asked dreamily.

Trent let out a short laugh. "As you wish. He's this dapper British guy, all right? And completely perfect in every other respect. With me so far?"

"Struggling with picturing a man perfect," Ella replied teasingly, "but with you otherwise."

"All right. So one day, let's say he gets this brilliant—but insane—idea that for some reason, he really, truly, desperately wants to marry you. But he has a really bad day at work, okay? Fourteen houses burn down, and he nearly dies. Twice. No, three times. But the thought of seeing you again pulls him through! So at the end of his horrible day he walks into the superstore, all singed and burned and smelling of smoke, and buys a blue feather for you. Then, even though he's completely burnt out—haha, bad pun—he takes you out to a romantic candlelit dinner. In a hot air balloon. And he has, I don't know, airplanes write 'Ella I love you, will you marry me' in the sky, okay? And then he proposes to you. What would you say?"

Ella covered her mouth with a hand and giggled. "I'd say—wait, what's his name?"

Trent gave an exasperated shrug. "I don't know—something British. Chauncey, his name is Chauncey."

Ella made a face. "Then—I'd say no." Trent rolled his eyes.

"Okay! His name is—William. Heck, he's _Prince _William."

"Prince William's married, doofus. Did you actually manage to miss hearing about the 'wedding of the century'?"

Trent's eye twitched. "Prince Harry, then!"

"Prince Harry's a—"

"Fine! His name's William but he's not Prince William. Are we good?"

Ella grinned at him, nodding. "Okay, then I'd say: 'Oh my, William! This is all such a wonderful surprise! Did you really go searching for a blue bird just for little me?'"

Trent cleared his throat and affected a British accent. "William says, 'My love, I would have, but I had a spot of bad luck today, you see…I was in critical condition for 90% of the daytime, but a marvellous Dr. Trent saved my life three times—'"

"Hey," Ella interrupted with a pout. "You said the thought of seeing me again pulled him through."

Trent waved a hand. "I lied, it was me. I saved his butt and I'm a hero. Anyway, you interrupted your fiancé." Ella laughed and waited for her "fiancé" to continue. " 'Yeah, so Dr. Trent saved my life…decent chap, really…and I couldn't bear the thought of being apart from you any longer, so I just had to pick this up today! I hope you don't mind that it came from the supermarket, dearest; I just couldn't stand the wait'."

Ella laughed and turned around to the table again. "Ohhh brother."

The doctor grinned at her. "Well? Would you honestly refuse a man who went through all that and gave you a store-bought blue feather? I don't think so."

"I dunno," she replied over her shoulder with an evil grin of her own. "He sounds kind of stiff and formal to me. Like he has no sense of fun."

Trent groaned. "I give up."

"Well," Kai said, standing and stretching, "this was fun. Um…my beach stand was supposed to open ten minutes ago so I'll see you guys later! Bye, Ella!" He blasted to the front door and threw it open before turning back to Trent. "Oh, and Doctor…try not to barf all over her sheets. Just a piece of advice, man-to-man. See ya!"

Trent glowered, but Ella couldn't help but laugh at her energetic friend as she cleaned up the plates from the table. Rinsing them in the sink, she peered over her shoulder at Trent, who was staring up at the ceiling with a perplexed expression on his face. He turned his head and settled his gaze on Ella as she hastily turned back to the dishes. "Ella?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"I'd like to cash in my favour."

Ella cringed. "Bring it on."

Gritting his teeth nervously, Trent said, "I'd like to bring you to Mineral Town for the Fireworks Festival tonight to watch them with Elli, Basil and me…well, mostly me."

The farmer couldn't have been more relieved that she was facing away from him as her cheeks burst into that lovely tomato-red tone that she was getting so used to. She really needed to learn how to relax.

He probably could have had better timing, he reflected; you know, possibly at some point later in the day when he hadn't just offended her and cut his arm open, bled all over the place, and then run off to her bathroom to toss his cookies thanks to some surprise mystery illness. Despite what a great series of turn-ons all those were, he wasn't too surprised when she just stood quietly at the sink. She was probably debating over the best way to kick him out of her house without cutting herself off from Hardy's care for the rest of her natural life.

So he was shocked when she turned away from the kitchenette and came over to sit cross-legged at the edge of the bed. And she dropped a wet cloth on his forehead. "That's it?" she asked teasingly. "I was afraid it was going to be something like testing out medicine for you. Bleah."

"Is that a yes?"

"Mhmm. But you just wasted your favour, you know."

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**A/N: Also, the stupid movie isn't real, as you can probably tell! (I can't even remember its title atm. Need...sleep...)Haha xD if it resembles any other movie you've seen, I didn't intend it. I just tried to write the cheesiest plot and characters for it I could think of at 4am :). so YEAH. They've got a date! But is it really going to be this easy...? Of course not, the divine still has to intervene!**

**Thanks so much for sticking with Divine Intervention, everyone! If you've made it this far, you're my heroes...popcorn for everyone C: Thanks for reading and please review! ^_^ **


	20. Whisper on the Wind

**A/N: Hello everyone! Look, I turned it out in less than 2 months this time! I think. ;o**

**Anyway, this one gets a little heavier near the end. Just fair warning, but by no means anything graphic or inappropriate or whatever. Also! Thanks SO much for all your wonderful, wonderful reviews. You are all my heroes. So I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you! ^_^**

**Disclaimer: Yes. I totally own HM, after denying it for so long. MUAHAHAHA…just kidding.**

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"Ready?" Ella asked.

Trent squinted up into the sunlight through the leafy canopy of the tree above them and exhaled. "Yep," he finally answered.

"Okay," his companion breathed, inching closer to the carved door of the great oak. "We'll just…go right on in there. Yeah."

The doctor narrowed his eyes at her as she ever-so-slowly drew closer to the door. "…Is something wrong?"

"No way! Why?"

He gestured at her. "Look at you. You're all…pep-talky and tense."

Ella frowned and stopped. Truth be told, she was less than eager to go into the Sprite Tree, but she knew she had to—Takakura would definitely give her an earful if she told him she needed him to watch over her farm again, especially if he figured out it was because she was going to something as frivolous as a festival two towns away. Her only other choice was to go to the Sprites. But even that was an unattractive prospect, as they adored her to the point of almost rabid obsession. "Um…" she began, "Well…the Sprites just sort of make me…uncomfortable. Ah…you'll see what I mean…"

Trent raised an eyebrow as she reached the door and rested her hand on the handle, pausing again. He couldn't see how going in to ask a favour from a bunch of shin-high creatures dressed like fairies could possibly be nerve-wracking. "Let me get that for you," he said, resting his hand on top of hers to gently twist the handle.

The farmer blushed furiously but didn't pull away, instead shyly slipping her hand into his when the door swung open. A quick glance at his flushed face let her know that he was equally flustered now, and somehow it was comforting and kind of sweet.

A flurry of motion inside the tree wrenched their eyes apart.

"Welcome! Welcome indeed!" cried the jovial orange Harvest Sprite behind the desk, flinging his arms up in the air in delight. "Ella! We're so happy you came to visit us! And you brought a friend! How lovely! We're very happy, aren't we, Guts? !" Jet turned to his pleasantly plump elbow-mate. "_Guts_?" When the blue-clad sprite snored in reply, Jet gave him a rough shove to wake him up.

"Sgnrk! Hah…?" Guts raised his head, presumably awake now though it was hard to tell behind his insane swirly glasses. "…You want to see my abacus? NO! I CAN'T LET YOU TOUCH MY VALUABLE BUSINESS TOOL! My…precious….my precious….ABACUS!"

Ella shrank away from the verbal assault, Trent hanging uneasily behind her. "Hi, guys," she began, "I came here to—"

"Ella! Ella Ella Elllllllllllaaaaaaaa!" sang a huge chorus of tiny voices as the 30 or so Harvest Sprites scurrying around behind the counter caught sight of her. They gathered at the front counter, squishing Jet and Guts and clamouring loudly for her attention.

"My hero!"

"HI ELLA!"

"Yaaaay Ella's here!"

"Can I PLEASE give her a hug?"

"I LOVE YOU ELLA!"

"I've missed you so much!"

Frowning, the doctor moved in closer to his blonde guide and hung protectively over her shoulder. The little fanatics looked harmless, but he still felt better that they were contained behind the counter—that way they couldn't jump all over her or tear at her hair for souvenirs, or anything.

"Aw, what the heck!" Guts cried. "It's cruel to keep you caged up when Ella pays us a visit! Go ahead! Be free!" With conviction and a sense of noble justice, he waddled over to the gate and unlocked it with a flourish.

"Aaah—" Ella murmured uncertainly, pressing herself closer to Trent as a colourful flood of Harvest Sprites spilled forth from behind the counter, screaming happily and running at her as fast as they could. "This is—kind of scary—"

A little green Harvest Sprite reached the farmer first and clamped onto her leg. "Eeeee!" he squealed in adoration. "Remember me? !"

"Ka…Kamar?" Ella guessed randomly, going only by the colour of his tunic. They all looked the same!

By way of reply, he merely fainted and fell off her leg. His place was quickly occupied by a rabid-looking purple Sprite who squealed up at her in much the same way.

Soon three were clinging to her other leg, and the rest were mobbing around her and clawing at each other to get closer. Ella was completely terrified, shrinking away as much as she could and squishing Trent between herself and the wall in the process. The doctor was peeling sprites off her arms and torso, his shock wearing off and being replaced with anger. _This is why she was so leery of coming in here…_

"Gah!" Ella cried as a dark blue sprite hurled himself at her and latched onto her arm. "Guys—please give me some room…"

Two strong arms suddenly snaked around her shoulders, holding her reassuringly for a brief moment—too brief—before lifting her up just out of the reach of the Harvest Sprites. The little beings cried in dismay and reached up after her, but the doctor carefully replaced her on the floor behind him and stood firmly in front of her, arms crossed. "Stop it," he said stiffly. "Don't you see you're scaring her?"

The sea of faces stared up at him blankly until one piped up, "Are you her mate?"

Instantly, judgment crossed every tiny face, and thirty-something pairs of appraising eyes roved up and down his frame critically. "Looks sickly to me!"

"What?" Trent demanded incredulously. "No, I—that's not—" Then, the sprite's words struck him. "I am _not _sickly," he added indignantly.

"Tell it to your pasty white face!" the same provoking sprite giggled childishly.

"Yeah! He's kind of scrawny too! How does he catch food for them?"

"How does he fight off enemies? He doesn't have scary teeth!"

"Plus he's sickly and frail!"

"Fresh cut on his arm!"

"Ella, are you sure he can take care of you?"

"Is that the best mate you could find?"

"Maybe you should find a healthier one!

Ella groaned in frustration and rested her forehead against his back in defeat, her hands stressfully clutching fistfuls of his shirt. All she wanted was to play some card games and win some medals…

"ORDER!" Guts roared unexpectedly, hitting the countertop with a small mallet. "You silly sprites, he's not her mate!"

The crowd quieted instantly and turned to look at him. He drew himself up and cleared his throat to continue. Trent was staring at him with a mixture of disbelief and dubiousness when he felt a tug on his sleeve—Ella held a finger to her lips and gestured for him to follow her. While the sprites were distracted, they began to creep towards the stairs on the far side of the room.

"..Humans operate in a higher order, a higher standard of sophistication!" Guts was saying. "Humans don't fight for food or kill each other for mates! Humans get…MARRIED."

"Ohhhh…" breathed the sprites thoughtfully. Ella froze guiltily as the plump bespectacled sprite pointed a finger at her.

"Halt!" he cried. "Is this man your Mary?"

"My Mary?" she repeated faintly in confusion. Guts sighed patiently.

"My dear girl! Animals mate and then that creature becomes their mate. Humans marry, and then that person becomes their Mary. Correct?" He looked to his sprites for confirmation, all of which nodded firmly back at him. "Correct!"

"No…" Ella sighed. "That's not how it works at all…"

"Why did you bring your Mary here, Ella?"

"Because—no! He's not my Mary! Err, spouse. Er, husband!" She rubbed her head. "Ugh…we're going downstairs."

"Because he's not your Mary?" repeated Jet, looking scandalized. He briskly turned and snapped his fingers at Guts, who began feverishly digging through a pile of books as Ella and Trent looked on in terror. "We can remedy that!"

"What? No!"

"Dearly beloved!" Guts began grandly, having produced a heavy old matrimonial tome. "We are gathered here on this fine weekday morning—why, that's hardly professional. What day is it?"

"Wednesday!" cried Jet.

"On this fine Wednesday morning to—hey, stop them!"

Ella looked behind her in panic at the sea of Harvest Sprites rushing to pull her and the doctor away from the stairs. "No! Wait, you don't understand! That's not why we're here, I mean!"

"You can't run away from your own wedding!" a yellow Sprite scolded sullenly. "It's just rude!"

"We didn't come here to get _married_…" Trent sighed.

"Yeah!" Ella agreed emphatically. "As I mentioned earlier…we're just trying to go downstairs to the Casino."

Guts stared at her critically. "But you said you came here because he wasn't your Mary."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Oh." He slammed the book shut. "Very well then. Proceed!" He waved dismissively at the Harvest Sprites gathered hopefully behind the "happy couple". "Go on, there isn't going to be a wedding today."

"Awww," they all groaned. One muttered darkly, "If she picked a less flighty mate…"

Ella rolled her eyes and started down the stairs, glad to finally be free of the grabby hands of the Harvest Sprites. When the two of them were safely below grounds, she exhaled and ran a hand through her hair to smoothen it. "So. _Now _you see what all the fuss about coming in here was about, yeah?"

Her companion nodded, still looking slightly dazed. "…Yeah…" He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts, and looked around for the first time at his surroundings.

They were in a spacious, sparsely furnished room carved out of the base of the tree; the walls were lined with a few small decorative garden trees and the floors were boarded. The bright red and yellow carpet led from the staircase to a small, square desk at the far wall, also splitting off into three separate paths to circular desks across the centre of the room. Three cultured-looking, moustachioed Harvest Sprites stood behind the circular desks, looking bored. A fourth leaned against the square desk and traced his thin moustache with his fingers, also looking bored.

The one closest them, dressed in navy blue, looked up. "Welcome, welcome," he drawled slowly. "What'll it be? Care to try your luck at my game of memory?"

Ella nodded hesitatingly and stepped towards the desk as the Sprite dug around for the cards. "Let me get this straight," Trent murmured in her ear, startling her. "You're just going to play some of these casino games to win the…trophies, or whatever they are, and then you're going to give them to the Harvest Sprites…?"

"Medals, mhmm. As form of payment," she clarified. "Yeah. So they'll take care of my farm while I'm away today…and possibly tomorrow, if it goes too late for me to come back tonight."

The doctor nodded and stood back. He watched as the navy blue-capped sprite, Jum, laid out the cards on the desk. Ella picked two; they didn't match.

Jum picked a match.

Ella failed to pick a match on her second turn.

Jum matched up the rest of the cards in one fell swoop and won the game, winning half of Ella's current medals. "Try again?" he asked boredly. The farmer set her jaw, lowered her stake, and gave a frustrated nod.

She lost the next game, too.

"You know what, I think I'll try my hand at the next game," she wearily told Jum after her third loss. Jum shrugged.

"Come back soon…"

Ella grumbled something and stood from her seat, heading over to the middle sprite in black. They played a few (quick) rounds of Blackjack, all of which Ella (quickly) lost. Scowling, she stood up and stalked over to the last table, dumping her almost-empty purse of medals in front of the red-capped sprite.

"Care to play Poker?" he drawled.

"Yes!" she said in annoyance, not bothering to ask about playing instructions. Slowly but steadily, she lost the rest of her medals to the little red clad Hops.

Neatly and precisely, he stacked her coins into small piles and tucked them into a drawer under the desk. "Perhaps milady should look into simply purchasing the medals."

Trent glanced at his watch, slightly anxious. "Ella? Maybe you should listen to him. It's almost noon, we should be going soon…"

She raked a hand through her hair stressfully. "…Alright! I should just really save my money…" Heaving a sigh, she made her way over to the purple-capped Roller, who stood smugly behind his square desk and smiled triumphantly at her.

"Medals are 10G each," he informed her, looking all too pleased. So pleased, in fact, it was starting to make Ella wonder if their stupid games were even possible to win at all…

Grudgingly, the farmer paid for sufficient medals. She and Trent jogged back up the stairs and walked cautiously into the upper room, wary of being assaulted by sprites again. Thankfully, they appeared to all be safely corralled back into the space behind the desk. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ella quickly made the necessary arrangements with a much calmer Guts, handed over the medals, and headed for the door with Trent hot on her heels.

They stepped into the bright sunshine both exhaled in relief. Smiling, Ella looked over at Trent and slipped her hand inside his again. "Shall we go?"

The doctor managed to not break eye contact with her as he squeezed her warm hand tighter. It wasn't as soft as it had been back in Flowerbud, he noticed, but that was a result of hard work—and he respected that. "Of course," he answered, feeling a smile of his own bloom across his sun-warmed face. Everything just seemed so right, so peaceful, so…dare he say it? Perfect. They began to walk leisurely down the path.

"_Stop this now. Don't go."_

The voice as quiet, insubstantial—barely a whisper on the wind. Ella gave a sudden start and blinked, glancing quickly over her shoulder at the goddess pond where the words had seemed to originate. There wasn't so much as a ripple on the water, and she didn't recognize the voice as one she had ever heard before. "Did you hear that?" she asked, uncertain if she herself had.

Trent furrowed his brow and tilted his head at her, puzzled. "Hear what?"

The farmer self-consciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I guess that's a no. It's nothing, I'm just going crazy. Come on, we better hit the road now or we'll miss the fireworks!"

"You can't go crazy if you're already crazy." Trent's remark earned him a hip-check. Grinning playfully, Ella tugged him along by the hand as she began skipping down the path.

"_Stop this. You have other things to be concerned with."_

Trent grinned and hurried to catch up with her; when he did, the farmer began swinging their arms back and forth widely and laughed at his embarrassment.

Again, he didn't seem to hear the voice.

"_Stop right where you are and pay attention to your duties. Everything else can wait_."

Ella paused briefly at the corner of the trail, where it began to lead back down to the village. Something—something was wrong here. Trent drifted in front of her and gently pulled her after him. "Coming or not?" he asked playfully, turning to look at her.

Ella couldn't help but grin back at him and allow him to tug her down the trail. "Of course I am!" she said, quickly skipping in front of him and taking the lead. "_You're _the holdup, slowpoke."

"_Stop! Listen to me! This has to stop!"_

Whatever it was, it would have to wait. Ella had a date.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"Here we are!" Trent said grandly, closing the Clinic door behind Ella as she walked in after him. She immediately found the nearest waiting room chair and sank gratefully into it.

"Ugh…my feet are killing me," she whined. Trent smiled sympathetically.

"Try making that walk twice a week. Barrels of fun." Ella only groaned.

"Trent?" Elli's voice called from upstairs. The blonde sat up in her chair as he headed over to the base of the stairs and peered up them.

"Yes?" he called back. They could hear the nurse's harried footsteps in the hallway through the ceiling above them and before long, she appeared on the staircase.

"Oh good—you're back," she breathed.

Trent's brow creased in concern. "Yes…? Is there a problem?"

"Only this!" she answered, flustered, and led him over to her secretary's desk. There were piles and piles of paperwork and documents sitting there, as well as empty pill bottles and pads of hastily scrawled notes. Trent's eyes widened in amazement. "And that's not all! Check out _your _desk."

The doctor ducked into the examination room and marvelled at what he saw. Much like Elli's table, his desk was cluttered with reaves of paper and prescriptions that needed filling—he took a step back, slightly overwhelmed. "Wow," he managed to croak.

Elli was more than slightly overwhelmed. Scrambling to put everything in order, she cried, "Yes! Wow! Lillia and Jeff have been calling nonstop since I got back and there were piles of messages for you from them, as well as several from Gray and one from Basil, and my Granny—"

"Okay, okay, Elli!" Trent said, hastily pulling his white lab coat on over his shirt. "Calm down! Lillia's been calling?"

The nurse nodded frantically. "Well, Rick for her. Since we left!"

"I'm there," he replied shortly, grabbing his black leather medical bag from his desk and heading for the door. "You can grab Jeff's meds from the cabinet there and bring them over for him."

"Alright!" She scrambled for the pill bottle, grabbed a folder, and blasted out the door. Trent stopped before heading out, looking back at Ella who had watched the entire scene unfold from her chair.

"Sorry about all this, Princess," he said quickly. "We'll try to be back as soon as we can."

"I know, I know," she said, waving at him to go. "I can't come, doctor-patient confidentiality and all that. Now get over to Lillia!"

A brief smile crossed his face before he headed out, shutting the door with a firm _click_.

Ella sighed, pulling herself out of her chair and wandering into the examination room. The temptation to poke through the papers was enormous, but she distracted herself by sitting down in Trent's tall office chair and pulling it up to the desk, which seemed a bit big.

Scooting forward to meet the desk, she hit her knee on a slightly open drawer. Initially she was annoyed, but then it occurred to her as a solution to her boredom. Eagerly she pulled it open to examine its contents.

Score! It was full of portfolios. The first one she pulled out read "Tippin, Stuart G.". Elli's little brother, Stu. A cute kid who'd moved in when his sister began training to be a nurse under the former doctor, Tim.

Ella flipped through the file names, refraining from opening any. Ashby, Carter W… O'Brien, Ann L…. Townshend, Karen M…Barton, Duke R….Masterson, Grayson B. (Gray's full name was Grayson? Ella was astonished.) They were all here. Even, she realized, her eyes widening, even Kaidan, Lockwood M. was filed neatly in the drawer. Despite the fact that he didn't technically live in Mineral Town.

It led her to wonder if Trent had a record on her, although she wasn't really a resident anymore, or under his care. Certainly the former doctor would have had one for her. As she rifled through the drawer, she reasoned that it wasn't really being nosy if you were only looking at your own folder…

Jones, Harris E…Jones, Thomas Q. (THAT one was tough to pass over)…Kelley, Clifford D. (getting closer!)…Kelley, Eleanor T.. Aha. Smirking in triumph, she carefully pulled her medical record out of the drawer.

The name was printed in a careful, square hand; not the scrawling, spidery script of the retired physician's that she knew from years of prescriptions and notes. Trent's hand? She frowned thoughtfully. This must have been a different file than the one used when she was growing up; had Trent rewritten everyone's file?

Oh well. What was in a medical file anyway, just allergies and past incidents? If so, hers would be incredibly boring. She peeled the yellow folder open and peered curiously at the crisp white sheet inside.

**Full Name: **Eleanor Teresa Kelley

**Birthdate: **Summer 12

**Height:**__5'5"

**Weight: ~ 125 lb**

**Spouse: N/A**

**Family: **KELLEY, Clifford D

Relation – Father

KELLEY, Teresa N

Relation – Mother

**Allergies: **N/A

**Last Visit: **-

**Reason: **-

**Additional Notes: **Is a sneaky, shifty character. Not to be trusted. Likely goes through people's medical records when the doctor is out. Beware. And for the record, the doctor always locks his door when he goes out. Yes. You read it right. He's onto you.

For a brief moment, Ella's eyes widened in surprise—and then she burst out laughing. When had he _written _this? He definitely hadn't had a chance to today. So did that mean he'd left his room unguarded? She put her folder back in and quickly flipped through the others, searching for his. She had absolutely no idea what his last name was, but now she was curious.

In the end, after searching starting from the back and then from the front, she found his folder filed in front of her family's near the middle—Marshall, Trenton G.

Trenton?

Ella grinned. As it turned out, a lot of people in the town had amusing full names. She put his folder back inside the desk and stood up to stretch.

"Mrrow."

The farmer froze mid-stretch. He hadn't had a cat last time she was here…turning to face the foyer, she met the glowing orange eyes of a silky black cat.

"Miaow!" Tail held high, the cat walked delicately over to her and rubbed affectionately against her legs. Ella's mouth dropped.

"_Dusk_?" she exclaimed, incredulous. She knelt down the rub the feline under her ears, as Dusk had always loved; the little cat responded with an appreciative purr. "Dusk! I can't believe you're all right! I thought I'd lost you forever in the forest that day!" Unable to contain her excitement any more, she scooped the bundle of black fur up in her arms and squeezed her adoringly.

Trent must have found her in the woods and taken her in. He wouldn't have known that she really belonged to Ella…but it was alright. She was safe, and now Ella had some company while she waited for the others to come back.

Still cuddling her long-lost feline friend, Ella wandered over to the windows of the clinic and gazed out at the familiar cobblestone roads. They were stained orange with the setting sun—soon, the fireworks would start. Ella felt her pulse quicken at the thought and buried her face in Dusk's warm coat. The cat's rumbling purr relaxed her.

This was going to be Ella's first real date, and she couldn't really think of any way it could be nicer. She'd always adored seeing the fireworks, even as a little girl; and the beach was one of the nicest places in Mineral Town. In her opinion, only the Mother's Hill area could best it. But the best part of the whole thing was Trent.

Their relationship was pretty crazy, she reflected. Barely weeks ago on her birthday—the only other time he'd been sick—everything had been so different. She'd seen everything differently, handled everything differently. Things were simpler…yet harder.

At the time, she'd still been reeling from introducing him to the Harvest Goddess and struggling with trusting him with the secret—or, most of it, anyway. She was overwrought, tired, and grumpy most of the time…which wasn't surprising, considering she'd moved away from the only family, friends and town she'd ever known and had to start from scratch. Added stress was the fact that money and survival weren't her only priorities; she had the whole Goddess rescue mission to worry about, too.

And she still did. But…it had become…bearable.

Because of a certain face she'd looked forward to seeing, someone who'd been unwittingly dragged into the whole mess right along with her. Someone who put up with her clumsiness and recklessness and death-magnetism with only a few sarcastic remarks. Someone outwardly coolly scientific and cynical, but masking a warmth inside that made her want to cuddle up to him as much as she could in an effort to stay near it. Someone who had trusted her with his secrets…someone who brought out the best in her along with the worst (a certain tent argument sprang to mind), made her laugh, made her blush…taught her to dance. Gone out of his way to help her—made her feel like something precious. Something, she thought as she recounted the day's earlier misadventure with the sprites, something to be protected.

She knew they were different. He in his stiff-collared, pressed work shirts and identical lab coats, running around saving people's lives with his eternal bedhead, and she in her usually mud-encrusted coloured overalls slogging through a field feeding cows and being generally reckless. They'd also come from different backgrounds: a privileged life shadowed by tragedy versus her sheltered small farming town life that she'd never really left.

After such a short time, you could say they were barely friends, but in a lot of ways, Ella considered him her best friend. And judging by the way he made her feel just by looking at her a certain way, or her flaming blushes, or the dizzy hope that bloomed in her chest when he held her hand, or the sudden arrhythmia she experienced when he'd surprise her at her doorstep—there was room for him to be more.

The doorknob turning caught her off-guard. She jumped a bit in her seat, causing Dusk to meow reproachfully and jump out of her arms. Elli came padding in, sighing tiredly, closely followed by Trent, who leaned heavily against the door after it closed.

Ella rose out of her chair. "Is everyone alright?" she asked in concern.

Elli nodded, slowly meandering across the foyer and heading for the stairs. "Yep…8:00 and all's well…"

The farmer walked up to Trent and rested a hand lightly on his shoulder. "Lillia's okay?"

He nodded. "Yes."

She frowned, looking into his face to meet his eyes. "You're okay?"

"Been better," he admitted with a slight grimace. Ella's frown deepened.

"Do you feel worse?"

He shrugged. Ella knew that was a yes. Sighing, she stepped forward and rested her head under his chin. "Okay. You should just go to bed."

"And call this whole thing off? Not happening, Princess."

"But—"

"Look," he said, gripping both her shoulders lightly. His tone softened. "We're both already here. I'd hate for—" Pausing, he struggled to find the right words. "For—this to all—for this to not happen."

She smiled and leaned forward to lean her forehead against his. "Alright, if you're sure. Just no puking on me."

A ghost of a smile returned to his pale face. "I'll try not to."

"Should we be getting our stuff down to the beach now?"

Suddenly, Elli came thundering down the stairs, heavily loaded with beach towels, umbrellas, and a wicker picnic basket. "Last spot's ours!" she cried, nudging the door open with her foot and disappearing outside. The farmer blinked and turned back to Trent in confusion.

"Last spot?" she repeated.

Trent grimaced again. "Yeah, uh…the beach is…kind of full."

Her mouth fell open. "_Full_? It can't be full—it's a date festival! People need to…" Ella trailed off as she realized the doctor was actually grinning at her. "What are you so happy about? Do you not want to go anymore…?"

His face fell. "No! I just…know something you don't know," he replied smugly. She raised an eyebrow.

"And what's that?"

"We're not watching the fireworks on the beach."

"We're…not?" she asked dully. He shook his head, still smiling. "Um, where then?"

"The roof."

"The roof?" She blinked. "What roof? _This _roof?"

"You got it," he nodded, looking pleased with himself.

Ella stared outright. "You…want to watch the fireworks…on the roof?"

Raising an eyebrow, Trent slowly replied, "Yes…I…do. You don't?"

"No, I do!" she insisted, eyes widening. "Just…who are you, and what have you done with Trent?"

He laughed, straightening and turning to head upstairs. "Oh, that guy? I don't know, he's probably kicking around here somewhere."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

The crisp summer breeze gently caressed Ella's hair against her cheek. She drew her knees up to her chin and wiggled her toes into the blanket, realizing she'd forgotten to bring a hoodie.

Beside her, Trent sat cross-legged in one of his rare pairs of jeans and a dark green hoodie. He peered over his shoulder for the millionth time, checking again that their spot on the Clinic roof was secure. Ella grinned smugly at him as she stroked Dusk, who purred beside her after climbing onto the roof after her. "I think I found Other Trent," she announced playfully to her date.

Trent cleared his throat and straightened. "It never hurts to be 100% sure. Especially when you're involved," he added pointedly, tossing her a teasing look. "I'm sure you could find a way to get injured in 5 seconds or less."

Ella grinned. "Pish posh! You flatter me." Dusk meowed and crawled into her lap. "Oh, by the way, Trent…about my kitty…"

Trent looked over at her. "Hm? You mean Jellybean?"

"Jellybean?" Ella repeated. She lifted the cat up from her lap.

"Yeah." Trent held out his hands to the black cat; she swatted at them playfully and readily leapt into his lap with a purr. "Jellybean. I found her wandering around the forest behind Gotz's place the day you…were…and Kai….oh," he said slowly, putting it all together. "She's your cat, then..?"

"Yeah," Ella answered, chewing her lip as she watched Dusk—or, Jellybean—frolic at the doctor's feet. "I haven't seen her since. I kind of thought bears or something got to her…"

"Oh," Trent said quietly. He scratched Dusk under her ear, just as she liked it, and was rewarded with her sandpapery tongue licking his hand. "Well, I guess you'll be taking her with you when you leave, then?"

"Umm," Ella answered uncertainly. She loved that cat, yes, but then Trent obviously did too. And Dusk seemed perfectly content living with the doctor. "No, I mean, she's pretty much bonded with you. I couldn't take her away."

"Don't say that…" he began, but both of them snapped to attention as the first firecracker, a red one, whistled as it ascended and then burst into a brilliant, glittering light.

Ella grinned widely at it. "I love this festival!" she whispered to Trent. Carefully, he inched over closer to her until their thighs brushed.

"I've never really watched it before," he whispered back. Ella was about to reply, but frowned suddenly.

"Why are we whispering? We're all alone up here!"

"Good point," Trent agreed, raising his voice. "We can SHOUT ALL WE WANT."

"YEAH!" she yelled. They were interrupted by another two firecrackers shooting up. "Didn't your hometown do this?"

"Well, yes," he said, frowning. "But I guess I always thought work and studying were more important." He swallowed as Ella rested her head against his shoulder and picked up one of his hands.

In reply, she only made a thoughtful humming sound as she turned over his hand. Cautiously, as if afraid that he would scare her away, he rested his cheek on the top of her head and held perfectly still.

Unlike him, she seemed to be completely at ease, save for one nervous habit: she ran her fingertips along the smooth, squared edges of his fingernails as she thoughtfully watched the sky. Her soft voice interrupted his train of thought. "You're still like that, I think. You should take it easy more often…"

"I have been," he murmured in reply, thinking of the pile of paperwork that awaited him inside. "Too much, maybe."

The fireworks show was over all too soon. As the first few townspeople began walking down the path to their homes, Trent gently nudged Ella. "We should go in." He felt, rather than saw, her nod against his shoulder and struggle to stand up. Dusk, who was nestled in between them, let out an irritated yowl.

"Oh you silly cat," Ella murmured, stroking her. She helped Trent fold up the blanket and sleepily staggered down to the base of the roof before carefully clambering down the ladder. The doctor followed her down, the beach blanket slung over his shoulder.

The crickets, which before had been drowned out by the booming of the fireworks, where chirping cheerfully in the grass. Trent made it to the ground and turned to look at her with concerned eyes. "Are you staying at your parents' place?"

Ella yawned and nodded. "Yeah…won't they be surprised to see me!"

He smiled, looking down at his feet again. A moment's silence passed. "…Did you have a good time?"

Ella took another step closer to him, wrapping her arms around his torso in a loose hug. "I always do."

Trent's heart stopped abruptly and then started again. "You—always do?"

She only laughed and pressed their foreheads together. "That's what I said."

What did _that _mean, Trent wondered. Women were just too cryptic. This was their first date, or whatever it was. Well, whatever she meant by that, it was probably a good thing.

"I'm glad," he murmured. He could feel her breath against his neck, and it sent chills down his spine despite the warm hoodie.

She lifted her face towards his, and despite himself, his eyes dropped down to her slightly parted, slightly pink lips.

"_Ssstop._"

And then, just as suddenly as she had started, she jerked away. Trent blinked. What had…just happened, and was it what was supposed to happen? His blood pounded in his ears, and he couldn't help feeling—disappointed.

She backed away, looking unsettled. "I should be going."

"Oh," he said dimly. "Uh—I—goodnight, Ella."

"Goodnight, Trent." She smiled again and gently brushed his cheek with her hand before turning to go.

"Don't forget your cat," he added softly as Dusk padded up to him and pawed at his feet.

"Oh. R-right." Looking distracted, Ella scooped up the sleepy cat and turned away again. Trent watched her go, frowning.

"Ella?"

"Yes?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"Uh. I…had a good time too. Thank you."

"Anytime," she said with a warm little smile that made his breath catch. And she meant it.

Trent watched her go until she was out of view.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Ella followed the frenzied whispering blindly, tripping over roots and stumbling on rocks in her tired daze. At long last she could tell she was growing nearer to the source, or whatever it was stemming from—it sounded urgent, pleading, and more than a little angry.

Finally, she staggered into a small, dimly lit clearing. The lighting seemed to emanate from the glowing, clear blue waters of a small pond—the Goddess pond, Ella realized. And her fears were confirmed.

Whisps of wind, stronger than the breeze of earlier that night, blew through the grass and through her hair.

"I consider myself a patient entity." The voice sounded more powerful now, and it resembled the Goddess's to a point—except it had taken on a more raw, almost savage edge. "But this has gone on far enough."

"What—" Ella tried to ask, but the whistling winds soon quieted her.

"You haven't listened to me before," the Goddess snapped, "But you will listen to me now. No more of this nonsense. You are neglecting your true duties. Do you not remember what I summoned you to this place half a year ago for? _Have you forgotten your responsibilities?_"

Ella was quiet.

"Your duty," the voice hissed, her tone low and dangerous, "was to start up a successful farm in order to rescue my Sprites. You agreed to do this for one purpose and one purpose only: so that I would prevent your mother falling ill."

The blonde girl, tiny in comparison to the power around her, curled inward. "I know," she whispered.

"I promised to do that," the Goddess continued. "And here I am, sitting in the Other World, _surrounded by un-rescued Harvest Sprites! _Why, Ella? Why is that?"

"Because…" Ella whispered. "Because…I…"

"YOU NEGLECTED YOUR DUTIES!" the voice roared venomously. After the outburst, her tone dropped back down to a dangerous purr. "And do you know why?"

Ella squeezed her eyes shut, managing to nod. Her stomach churned sickeningly inside her with guilt and fear and something else.

"Yes, you do, don't you? A certain dark-haired distraction, if I may say so myself. Yet my hints and warnings fell on deaf ears—you didn't give him up. You can't. I perhaps see that more clearly than you do, so I have to put a stop to this, for everyone's sake."

Ella's mouth fell open in outrage. "Hints and warnings?" she cried angrily. "You never gave me any indication that you _disapproved _of anything." Immediately, she was forced down again by the force of the wind.

"Little Ella," sighed the voice. "All those accidents, all those disasters. Don't you realize the connection between them and him? Watching you, I saw what you two might feel in time. I tried to put a stop to it, tried to change your opinion of him. True, some of the things that happened to you were product of your own carelessness, but I did some meddling in your negative energies to affect the end result! The poisonous berries. The broken leg that healed badly. Falling off the stairs in HIS HOUSE—don't you see? But I only served to bring you closer together." Her voice dropped, taking on a venomous edge. "That's why I changed my target."

Ella's mind was racing. Not her mother—the Goddess wouldn't go back on her deal, or else she wouldn't have any more pawns to use. Changed her target…

"No," she murmured.

"Yes." The Goddess's tone adopted a sickly sweet lilt. "That illness of his won't go away until you do. The cut? Simply something that will become commonplace for him, and become worse with time, as will the sickness. So don't try to be a tragic lover."

Ella slumped forward on the lawn, defeated, and nodded numbly.

"I had to do this," the voice continued, now sounding tragic and noble. "The closer you grew, the less time you spent at your ranch and the farther you drifted from us. He proved surprisingly cunning, being the one who thought of the Midsummer Midnight orchid; I had to tell him where to find it as your injury was inhibiting your work. You came to view him as a safe place, but it has come at the cost of all your responsibilities! Don't you see you're the only one who can help me, the only one who can revive the land? Camping trips, coming to festivals—you're hardly ever there. And now you're dumping your burden on others. Won't you ever learn?"

Shivering, Ella knew in the cold pit of her stomach that everything the Goddess was saying was true. Every word. She thought of all the sprites who were waiting helplessly for their rescue in the other world, thought of the ones currently slaving at her farm while she was off gallivanting in Mineral Town. Poor Takakura, who'd looked after her farm the whole time she was away in Flowerbud exploring old seaside chateaux, and never said a single word against her. She thought of the people relying on her to bring the Goddess back and restore nature's power.

She was letting every single one of them down.

"Ella. I'll give you some leeway. I know how awful you must be feeling."

The blonde flinched, hating the Goddess's false sympathy, but said nothing. It was all she could do to listen, sickened with herself.

"60 Harvest Sprites," she purred. "Rescue 60 Harvest Sprites. I will return then. And following my return, I will lift his affliction. But until then, bear in mind he will not suffer if you are not near. Are we understood?"

Ella murmured something. The winds whistled sharply, threateningly. "What was that?"

"Yes," the blonde croaked hoarsely. "I understand."

"Good. Be on your way."

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Ella stood poised by his bedside, holding Dusk securely in her arms. He looked peaceful in sleep—more peaceful than he would be if he were awake with her, she knew. Carefully, she placed the sleepy cat on his pillow and watched as she stretched and curled back up. She would be happy here.

"Goodbye, Duskie," she whispered, planting a quick kiss on the cat's velvety head. Then she turned her attention on the man breathing slowly and evenly just under her face.

"And you, Trenton." Quickly, afraid of waking him, she brushed her lips across his cheek too. And for a split second, she could have sworn he smiled faintly. But it flickered for only a brief second before disappearing.

Just like her.

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**A/N: Ugghhnn. I am so tired. If you find any mistakes, let it be known that I was barely conscious while finishing this! Feel free to point out any typoes or wrong names or whatever that you might find.**

**So yeah. Thought I ought to incorporate the whole 60-Harvest-Sprite-marriage-requirement thingy in, and add an unexpected little twist on Ella's story. Because the end part was kind of heavy, I tried to make the beginning light to make up for it. Anyway I hope you enjoyed! Either way, please leave me a review if you get the chance. Until next chapter….ta-ta, as our dear friend the Goddess would say. ;)**

**P.S.: Guts is really too possessive of his abacus. **


	21. Autumn Breeze

**A/N: Sorry how long this took, guys. I just don't know what's gotten into me lately! But thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews. I hope you're pleased with this chappie since it took so long~ but it's not TERRIBLY chock-full of events. I'm so excited for the next chapter, though! ^^**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine.**

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"Trent?"

The physician started in his seat and looked up, squinting blearily through his exhausted haze at the concerned brown eyes of his robed nurse. Night had fallen across Mineral Town hours ago, and now the quiet, empty Clinic was shrouded in shadow. He struggled to make out her slight form in the darkness of his unlit examination room as he slammed the portfolio on his desk shut. "Elli…? What are you doing up?"

She put her hands on her hips. "I could ask you the same thing. It's really late! Have you even _noticed _the clock on your desk?"

Trent rubbed his face tiredly before stretching, pushing away from his desk slightly. "Didn't need to, there's a calendar behind me."

"Oh, hahaha," the nurse returned sarcastically. "You _must _be tired, now you're trying to make jokes. Come on, Trent, just go to bed. The work can wait until tomorrow." She turned, threw him one last look (that he could barely see anyway) over her shoulder, and then began padding back up the stairs in her slippers.

Trent yawned widely before reopening the folder and tracing the page with tired eyes. Yes, the work could wait. But he had a lot of catching up to do still. He sighed heavily and raked a weary hand through his hair—he was worried. He was always worried, lately.

And, as was becoming usual for him when he was worried, his thoughts turned to her. This frustrated him further—just for once couldn't he focus on work without her filling his traitorous mind? It was as though the harder she tried to fade away (or so it seemed to him), the more consuming the thought of her became.

Giving up, Trent brushed away all the papers, clipboards and spreadsheets from him save the one directly front and centre and finally allowed his mind to wander towards her.

"_I have work."_

The three words—just those three words composed the majority of all she ever seemed to say to him anymore. Always the same excuse. He'd tried to ask her about another movie night—maybe just for the two of them—but he never got to that part as she immediately turned him down.

"_I have work."_

Not so easily daunted, he'd pestered her again the next week. She wasted no time in pointing out all the work both of them had to do, and then immediately left, effectively cutting short the only time the entire week he ever got to see her anymore.

"_I have work_."

And Trent, being as well versed as he was in the ancient art of Woman Speak, didn't believe for a second that was the whole story. Women had little codes they used to disguise what they really meant. For example, when his mother and father used to fight, his mother would often say, "I'm tired, I'm going to lie down now", which actually translated into something along the lines of "I'm tired of your stupid. I'm going to lock myself in my room and surround myself with my cats. Do not dare come in unless you have chocolate, diamonds, or a death wish—preferably chocolate".

But that didn't explain much, because Ella could mean _anything _by that. Anything from "Our date was a disaster and I never want to see you again" to "I'm playing hard to get, catch me if you can!" or even…well, "I have work".

Yes, the date. It had to be something to do with the date; he'd wracked his brains so many times to try and pinpoint the problem, and inevitably, his conclusions all led back to that fateful night. She had disappeared early in the morning—or maybe even that night, who knew? She barely communicated with anyone anymore—and come straight back to her farm. Since then, she barely left the place except to run errands and occasionally eat, or so he'd been told. He himself never saw her except during her brief, _so _brief, visits to the Clinic on Wednesday mornings.

No, that wasn't true. Once at daybreak, as he and Elli were leaving to return to Mineral Town, he'd caught a glimpse of her wandering down the winding path to the dig site.

And it had been that way since the summer heat cooled and leaves began to turn russet and gold and brown. Halfway through autumn, it was that way still.

"Trent!"

Elli's voice cut through his agonized musings as he jolted violently in his seat and stood up with a groan. Since when did he get so _jumpy _all the time? Barely, he could make out the faint tapping of slipper against tile from the top of the stairs as the nurse grew impatient.

"Trent, you're still not in bed! Get up here right this instant or I'll close the clinic tomorrow and won't wake you up!"

The doctor made a strangled noise of protest and immediately dragged himself up the stairs. "Elli—don't even _think_ about closing the Clinic tomorrow! There are tons of appointments and—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she yawned, one hand over her mouth and the other waving dismissively. "Go to bed."

Trent finally obeyed her, grudgingly. He stepped sideways into his room and almost immediately, his ankles were assaulted by a sleek black cat that always had way too much energy…even with her growing belly.

"Hey, ease up, Jellybean," he reprimanded the cat softly, gathering her fluffy form up in his arms. "You're going to be a mama soon. You're going to have to learn to be a _responsible adult_."

Jellybean stared back at him with a pair of unblinking orange eyes, seeming almost to ask "Seriously?" Trent set her down on the floor by his bed and kicked off his shoes before clambering in, not bothering to change into his pajamas. What was the point? He was just going to be up working again in a few hours anyway.

When Elli, listening outside his door, could tell he'd stopped shifting and rolling over, she quietly crept down the stairs to the main floor to see what work of his just couldn't wait so that she could _hide _it—in the event he decided he only needed an hour's sleep and came down again.

Being a neat freak, she couldn't help but tsk disapprovingly at the clutter on his desk. Precarious stacks of notebooks adorned two corners of the surface, and the remaining space was littered with papers, portfolios, pill bottles, scribbled notes, and assorted equipment.

But one folder was open. Placing a finger on the corner of the page, she slowly turned it to face her and squinted at the printed name through the darkness.

Kelley, Eleanor T.

The nurse sighed and returned the page to its original position. She knew something was going on with those two, but _what _exactly? And did the sunshine-haired farmer have something to do with Trent's…

Well, it was hard to describe in one word. He'd practically turned back to the way he always used to be; living on his laptop and coffee, throwing himself into his work, rarely leaving the clinic and only catching a few hours of sleep whenever it was convenient (which didn't end up being often). A lifestyle that she knew for a fact that he wouldn't condone for, say, Ella.

Something had changed, she knew that much. For one month, at least, he'd been as carefree, cheerful, and lively as she'd ever seen him, which was saying something. And then, just….ker-splat. Back to the old drawing board.

And it made her feel downright guilty. How could she be so happy with Basil, having the time of her life and loving him more every day, while Trent just sat in the clinic when they went out and barely looked up from his work?

And Ella had turned all—slippery, for lack of a better word. She visited the clinic on Wednesdays when they stopped by Hardy's home, and she'd distribute gifts as she'd done back in the Spring. But she never stayed long, and definitely not long enough for Trent. Elli noticed the way the farmer seemed to dance away from him when he tried to approach her; she'd heard the excuses. She'd seen how disheartened and somber he'd become. But the nurse was convinced that Trent could still win the sprightly blonde over. Maybe he just needed a little…push. Or two.

A gleeful smile bloomed across the brunette's face as she came up with the first phase of her new plan. She skipped back upstairs and ducked into her room, where she spent a few feverish minutes hunting for several books. When she'd finally uncovered the ones she wanted, she grabbed the first one and quietly sneaked down the hall to his room.

Elli listened outside his door until she was certain that he was still asleep. Furtively, she pushed his door open and crept inside to place the thick old book on his glass coffee table. Her mission complete, she triumphantly tiptoed out and carefully closed his door before heading back to her room for a good night's sleep.

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Eyes scrunched closed, Trent yawned widely and loudly before taking another deep swig from his mug of black coffee. Placing it back on his desk, he noted fleetingly that he was running low on his caffeinated sustenance, and then turned back to the dossier in front of him.

A stick-it note on its cover detailed all the appointments for the day, and he blinked sleepily as he registered he had a 9 o'clock appointment. With the Kelleys, no less. He rubbed his forehead and groaned.

"_Yes, your daughter's doing just awesome! She's ignoring everyone and turning into a hermit, though. Is that going to be a problem?"_

He yawned again and brushed aside the pseudo-conversation. Soon Elli would be up and yelling at him, so he only had a few minutes to finish the—

"TRRRREEENNNT! YOU ARE IN **BIG **TROUBLE!"

Yep. "GOOD MORNING, ELLI!" the doctor yelled back. "WOULD YOU LIKE SOME COFFEE?" Soon after he added that, trying to be thoughtful, he realized he'd already finished off the rest of the pot.

She padded quickly down the stairs without replying and appeared in his examination room, smoothing out her skirts. Before she could say anything, Trent grabbed a certain thick book off his desk and offered it to her.

"Thank you for lending me _Pride and Prejudice _last night," he said sarcastically, "but I've already read it twice."

Elli snatched the book back. "Hmph! It's considered one of the all-time greatest romances in classic literature, you know. Did it give you any ideas?"

The doctor continued writing. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about." The brunette narrowed her eyes at him.

"I won't give up," she warned. Trent yawned at her.

"Okay. We open soon."

She huffed. "Hmph. I might as well have some coff—Trent! Did you finish off that entire pot of coffee by _yourself_?"

_Among others_, he thought. But she didn't need to know about them. "Yes. But I'll make another, you can go sit down."

"Nonono, I'll make it~ you have an appointment in three minutes, anyway. Maybe you should unlock the door," the nurse insisted.

Trent stood up and mechanically walked over to the front door, where he could see a silhouette through the blinds on either side. He groaned inwardly and slid the key into the lock, deftly twisted it, and pulled the door open with a fake smile plastered on his face.

"Good morning," chirped the middle-aged, sun-bleached blonde on the doorstep. She was linking arms with her husband beside her. "I hope we're not too early!"

"Not at all." Trent stepped aside and motioned for them to come in. A few stray windblown leaves drifted in as Cliff and Tess ventured inside, removing scarves and jackets and dumping them on a waiting chair. "Come on in to the back."

The couple followed the doctor to his examination room and sat down in two chairs provided by Elli.

"So," Cliff said, "Ella."

"Yes," agreed Trent. "Ella." His eyes wandered idly over the room behind them as his brain struggled to focus after his two-hour nap. A murmur from the couple prompted him to glance back their way, and he found his eyes drawn to their clasped hands.

Tess was holding one of Cliff's hands in her own and absentmindedly running her fingers along the roughened edge of his fingernails—the exact same thing that Ella had done on their date, on the rooftop.

That seemed so long ago, now.

"Doctor?"

The vintner's questioning voice snapped him back to reality—_There I go again_, Trent thought irritably. "Yes, sorry," he said aloud, straightening. "Your daughter's farm has been thriving, I hear."

"Oh, good," Tess breathed with obvious relief. "We haven't really heard from her in such a long time—she did write us a letter back in late summer, though, which was weird."

"Just to let us know she was still alive, I guess," Cliff chuckled. His wife elbowed him, not looking amused, and then leaned forward on the desk.

"I was sort of hoping that maybe she'd found a boy," the blonde rancher told the doctor confidentially. "And that maybe that's why she seemed so distracted lately! I'd love for her to settle down—she can be so flaky. But nobody really seems to know anything and it's been keeping me up at night."

Trent really didn't know how to reply. If Ella had "found a boy"—his throat went dry—then it certainly wasn't him. Dimly, he recalled that Kai was still hanging around in the town…

"I couldn't say, Mrs. Kelley," he replied honestly. "I'm sorry."

Looking disappointed, she sat back in her chair. "Oh, that's all right. I'm sure you have better things to be concerned about when you visit the Valley, right? All that work you must have!"

"…Of course."

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Kai couldn't remember the last time he'd been cold. His fingers tightened around the coat he'd picked up on sale from the Supermarket; it was sheepskin and smelled like the spray they used to waterproof it, and it was heavier than anything he'd ever worn before in his life.

But it was worth it, he thought, a smile curling around his lips. The autumn leaves were surprisingly pretty—he couldn't say he'd ever really seen them up close before. He was always long gone before fall had time to settle in the town.

"Here, Kai," Popuri panted breathlessly, running up to him with an armful of ruddy leaves. Her blushing locks bounced around her shoulders, seeming to accent her huge innocent eyes. "Here are some of the best ones!"

Grinning, the beach-boy-turned-leaf-raker accepted the pile from her and smiled even wider. "Slick, Poppy! They're sweet!"

"I know, right?" she giggled back. May and Stu appeared from behind the church, dragging a large bag behind them and throwing stray leaves at each other. Popuri beamed happily at their progress. "Hey guys! Great job raking! Let's go make a big pile right outside the Inn and jump in, okay?"

"Okay!" chirped Stu, tearing off immediately and spilling leaves left and right from the bag. May began to trail after him, then turned to Kai and Popuri and put her hands on her hips.

"Mr. Kai?" she asked innocently. Her voice startled the tanned man out of his thoughts and he turned to look at the little girl with both eyebrows raised. "Don't you usually leave in the fall?"

"May!" scolded Popuri primly. "Don't make him feel unwelcome!"

Her pigtails bounced as she shook her head vehemently. "No, I like him here!" she insisted. "I was just wonderin'…"

Kai knelt to lower himself to her height and grinned goofily at her. "Yeah, I do usually, May! I just really like being here, so I decided to stay a little longer this year! That cool?"

"Yeah!" she insisted, smiling shyly back at him.

"Awesome," he answered, grinning. "Well, Poppy and I will meet up with you at the Inn, yeah?"

"Okay!"

Satisfied, May dashed off to catch up with Stu. Popuri giggled and bounced up to Kai, adjusting the collar of her coral jacket. "Yeah Kai, why _did _you decide to stay this year? Mineral Town is the exact same boring place it always is!"

"Is it?" he questioned, turning to face her mischievously. His breath caught again just looking at her—cheeks red from the chill of the day and the raking, hair carelessly swept aside but still falling in perfect waves over her shoulder, those huge, entrancing, _beautiful _eyes…and that pert little rosebud smile.

"Yes…" she answered slowly, taking another step forward. Kai felt his heartbeat speed up as she closed the distance between them. "Nothing's changed, and nothing _ever _will."

"You've changed," Kai pointed out, not yet sure himself where he was going with this. Popuri tilted her head to the side adorably, confusion evident in her ruby eyes and rosy tendrils spilling over her shoulder.

"I have? Since _when_?"

"Well," Kai said, suddenly nervous. He swallowed hard. "Well, since you were a little hyper tomboy who used to roll around in the mud with me. Remember?"

The pinkette blushed and laughed at the memory. "Yeah! My mom hated that _so much_!"

The beach boy smiled and allowed his eyes to rest on her awhile longer. She had certainly changed; her hair no longer choppy spikes, teeth no longer loose or missing, the smattering of freckles across her nose now accenting her pretty porcelain face. She practically glowed—a lovely, self-assured, playful, charming young woman.

In love, Kai was twice as impulsive as usual.

"Hey, Poppy…" he began slowly, pivoting on the spot to face her fully while still kneeling. "What if I told you I stayed here because of you?"

Instantly, the young girl's face flamed bright red. "M-Me?" she stammered. Kai smiled at her reaction as he dug around in his pocket for the item he'd originally intended to use on Popuri as a prank. Blushing was good. He knew from experience with Ella that it was the blanching you had to watch out for…

"Yeah," he answered softly. "And what if I told you…that when I leave in the winter…I want you to come with me?"

"I—I—I—" Popuri was too nervous and flustered to fully answer. "I—Mom would never let me unless we got m—mm…"

Smiling his blindingly white smile, Kai drew the Blue Feather out of his pocket and pressed it into her hand. "Married?"

"Y—Yes!" Popuri squealed. Her eyes widened almost impossibly big at the legendary object her dream man had just given her. "Yeah! We—we'd have to get married!"

"Well," grinned Kai, standing and curling his hands around hers, "then, let's get hitched! You down for that, babe?"

"YES!" With a shrill squeal of delight, Popuri threw herself into his arms. "I will DEFINITELY marry you!"

Because when it came to love, when it came to leaving…the bubblegum-haired rancher's daughter was every bit as impulsive as Kai.

And she'd been dreaming about her Disney Princess-themed wedding for a _long _time.

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_Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock._

The clock seemed to be mocking him.

_Tick. Tock. Tick….Tock….Tiiiiiick…Toooooock…._

Was it actually going slower by the second, or was that just him? The first few times it seemed to happen, he convinced himself that it was just him, but now that it was becoming a regular thing—

"Trent, you're fidgeting again! Just relax, okay? She always comes. You know that!"

The dark-haired physician glanced over at his nurse, trying to look nonplussed. "I know," he replied with forced calm. "I'm not fidgeting." There was no use arguing over the cause of his unease anymore; Elli could read him like a book.

"Relax. And don't forget to _ask her_."

"Do I not look relaxed to you?"

Her eyes flicked up from her text and scanned him briefly. "Nope." She turned back to the book. Trent sighed and reluctantly allowed his eyes to travel back to the now-familiar face of the clock as he drummed his fingers against the desk.

"Yes, time will pass," Hardy's voice rumbled ominously, "but will you?"

Trent ignored his mentor's comment and focused on the page in front of him. She _did _always come…she was just—sometimes—really late.

"Thanks so much, Marlin! I owe you."

Three heads snapped over to the door as it creaked open, admitting a small blonde woman in faded blue overalls. She waved and shot a quick smile at someone over her shoulder before stepping inside. Almost instantly, Trent was hit by a wave of nausea—or, more like, a tsunami of nausea. This, too, was becoming a regular thing; earlier in the season he had been convinced he had some rare strain of the flu (that apparently only manifested itself when a certain blonde farmer was present), but by now he knew it could only be a byproduct of his extreme nerves. _I must be some kind of basket case, _he thought, his fists clenched white-knuckled in his lap. _Who the hell gets this physically ill with nerves just because she—or anybody—walks in?_

"Hi, guys. I—" She stopped abruptly mid-sentence, her blue eyes widening. "…Why are you all staring at me?"

Hardy cleared his throat casually and set his notebook down on the table as the nurse hastily wrenched her eyes away. Trent didn't bother. "Come in, come in! Good to see you looking so healthy," the older physician greeted. Ella smiled and closed the door behind her before setting her old brown rucksack on the table.

"Good to see you all, too." She kept her eyes trained on the inside of her rucksack, as she usually did, giving Trent his once-weekly chance to quickly look her over for any trace of injury. As usual, she looked…well, fine. Her shirt seemed to hang off her frame a little more than usual, but otherwise fine.

He had mixed feelings about that, which he hated himself for. Of course he was happy that she wasn't running around with open wounds from axe accidents or…falling barns…but, he had kind of come to think of himself as her…guardian, almost. And seeing that she no longer needed him—that she was doing fine without him—it kind of hurt.

Or maybe barns/dilapidated old staircases had just miraculously stopped falling on her, she'd miraculously stopped eating poisonous berries, and she miraculously hadn't walked into anybody dangerous.

_That _would take a miracle, he mused coyly.

"Here you are…" Ella's voice snapped him away from his wandering thoughts. She passed Elli some of her favourite blooms and handed Hardy a small bottle of milk before offering one to him. "And for you!"

"Thank you," he said sincerely, accepting the bottle. "No cows falling on you recently?"

She grinned wickedly. "Nope. The perpetrator in question is currently pregnant again, so she's pretty happy just to sit in her corner and mope without crushing anyone. For the time being, anyway. Well, enjoy your prezzies, guys, and have a safe trip home. Bye!"

In a flash, she had repacked her rucksack, slung it over her shoulders, and was practically walking out the door. Both Hardy and Elli turned to throw Trent intently pointed looks, and the nurse gestured insistently at Ella's retreating form.

"Er—wait, Ella," Trent said, hastily shoving back his chair and standing up abruptly. In his haste he knocked into the table and sent his black briefcase tumbling on its side. It spilled open, emptying documents, folders, textbooks, pens, equipment, and a well-used copy of _Gone with the Wind _all over the surface of the table.

_Gone with the Wind_?

The physician made a choking noise and stared at the thick book in horror. _Where did that come fr—_ he started to wonder, before a panicked glance at Elli's expression answered his question.

The nurse was hunched forward in her seat, both hands covering her mouth as she struggled to suppress her laughter. Trent narrowed his eyes at her. "Elli…" he began, his voice dangerously low.

And then, he felt as if someone had just punched him in the gut. He staggered backwards, paling, and fell back into his seat with a quiet groan. Both the nurse and his mentor sent him concerned looks, but Ella, now standing across the table from him, only glanced at him briefly and almost guiltily before replacing the romance novel on the table.

"Bit of light reading, Trent?" she asked teasingly as she turned to leave again.

"Yes," he emitted drily. "I read it cover-to-cover every night. Helps me sleep."

"You mean every _morning_," Elli grumbled. "It's never still night when you head off…"

With a _click_, the door closed behind Ella. The three sat silently in the room for a moment before Elli said, "Trent. She got away again."

This time, his groan was one of frustration. "What's the point?" he demanded, standing up again and shrugging his windbreaker on despite his protests. "She's obviously not going to want to come all the way to Mineral Town just for a tiny birthday party."

"You won't be content unless you ask her anyway," Elli calmly replied, flipping through her textbook. "Now GO." Hardy nodded in agreement and shooed him out of the room without raising his eyes from his text.

Grumbling, the doctor stepped out the door and into the cool, breezy autumn day. He zipped up his jacket and glanced around before spotting Ella standing in front of the Inn, talking to Rock. They exchanged something and the farmer waved as she jogged away.

Trent began to hurry after her, but was forced to slow down when the violent feeling of illness returned, accompanied by the flare of anger. _Really?, _he thought, frustrated, before resorting to yelling after her. If he didn't catch her now, who knew when the next opportunity would arise? "Ella! _Ella_! Wait!"

Abruptly, she whirled around to face him, strands of blonde hair straying across her face. She tucked them behind her ear as she took a step toward him. "Oh, Trent! Perfect, I wanted to talk to you."

He blinked. "You…did?" He felt his chest almost expand with the warm, airy feeling of hope, and began walking towards her.

"Yeah." She shifted uncomfortably and tugged her flannel sleeves down over her hands. "Umm…my mother's perfectly fine and everything, right? I mean, as far as you know?"

Trent stopped and looked at her. "Ella—your mother? Uh…yes, she's fine, as far as I know...why?"

"No reason!" the farmer chirped, looking back up at him with a grin. "That's all I wanted to know. See ya!"

"Wait!" Before she could slip away again, Trent jumped after her and reached out to grab her hand. "Hey, I wasn't—_ouch_!"

Hissing through his teeth, he tore his hand away from hers and spread his fingers wide to examine his palm. As soon as he'd made contact with her skin, an intense flash of heat had burned viciously across his flesh at an unbearable degree—but there were no marks on his hand. "What on…?"

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly, taking a step toward him. "What happened to your hand?"

"I—" He looked up and closed the distance between them, holding his hands out. "Let me look at your hands."

Looking confused, she lightly rested her hands on top of his, palms down. Her fingertips only lightly brushed the base of his wrist, but again he hurriedly withdrew his hands as his skin burned as though scalded.

_Oh, no. _Ella's chest tightened as she watched him stare incredulously at his hands. She obviously was still spending too much time with him. Were her once-weekly clinic visits even going to have to stop…? The Goddess was right; this _was _getting worse.

"Ella," he suddenly said, very seriously and startling her. Taking another step forward, his concerned brown eyes bored into her surprised blue ones. "Great Goddess, you're burning up—your temperature must be—come with me." The doctor reached out to grasp her elbow, but she danced out of his reach. "Ella, please!"

"No, Trent, I'm fine!" she insisted. "I don't know what the problem is—but, um—I'm sure it's fine!"

"I'm fairly sure that when your skin is burning to the touch that you're not the exact definition of _fine_," he shot back, lunging forward again. "Why are you fighting me on this, you're clearly very sick—"

"But I'm not! I'm fit as a fiddle!" she cried, dodging him. "Wait—wait! What did you want to talk to me about?"

Trent narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't try to change the subject, Princess!" He reached out, trying to catch her wrist again, but she deftly twisted away in the nick of time. "_Ella_!"

"Hey, whoa!" Someone grabbed Trent's shoulder and wrenched him around to face them. It was Rock, staring accusingly at the doctor. "Look at you, Dr. Grabby! Ella, is he bothering you?"

The farmer only rubbed her eyes tiredly. "No, Rock, he isn't bothering me. You can go back to the Inn, but thank you."

"Wait," Trent said, as Rock turned to go. "Hold on, this is serious, Rock—she's very ill but she won't come to the Clinic. Would you—"

"She's sick?" the Innkeeper's son exclaimed, his eyes as wide as saucers as he raced over to her. "How sick? Does she have a fever?"

"Big time," the physician said irritably.

"You're sick?" Rock demanded of Ella, grabbing her hand.

"Just—no, don't touch—"

The blonde's eyes were now firmly squeezed shut as Rock released her hand, only to clamp one over her forehead. "She feels fine," he declared. "I guess her temp must've gone down, hey, Doc?"

Trent stared, bewildered. How the blond man could stand to touch her that long without his hand being scalded—"_What?"_

Rock shrugged and dropped her arm. "Oh well, she's fine," he said cheerfully, then skipped back into the Inn. Neither Ella nor Trent moved or said anything until she finally broke the silence.

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" she emitted, her shoulders tense and gaze fixed on her muddy workboots.

_Whump_.

"Trent?" She glanced up worriedly, only to find him crumpled on the path, pale as a sheet and completely unconscious. "Oh, _Goddess!"_

˙·_٠__•● _Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•_٠_·˙

Trent crossed off another day on the calendar and sat back at his desk. There wasn't anything in particular he was counting down to—the end of the year, maybe. It just felt good to have some sort of goal, as meagre as it was. His eyes only briefly rested on the date: Sunday, Fall 19.

His birthday.

He yawned and turned away from the calendar, back to the pile of unorganized portfolios strewn across his desk. The clinic was officially closed for the evening, but that didn't necessarily mean that a doctor's work was done.

"Trent?" Elli's voice came softly. He looked over to where she was peeking in from around the curtain, standing beside Basil in matching evening wear. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to come out to dinner with us? It is your birthday dinner, after all, and you haven't left the Clinic all day."

"No, I'm sure, but thank you for the invite." Trent looked back down at a spreadsheet. "Enjoy your date."

"Okay," the nurse sighed, sounding defeated. "Carter says the invitation for you to join him for dinner at the Church, or a drink at the Bar is also still open…your cake's still in the fridge, we can eat it when we get back if you'd like."

"Help yourselves."

"…Okay. I baked it myself, you know."

"Thank you."

Elli fidgeted with her jacket, and Basil tossed her a sympathetic look. "We'd better just go," he murmured to her. She nodded, still looking stressed, and followed her boyfriend for a few steps before she thought of just one more thing.

"Oh, Trent? Um, you got something in the mail the other day, and—well, I was planning to give it to you at dinner as part of your birthday presents, but—um, since you're not coming, you can just open it whenever I guess. It's on my desk. Um…I think you will want to open it."

The doctor still didn't look up from his paperwork. "Thank you. Have fun."

"Okay…"

As he heard the doorknob twist close, he rose out of his swivel chair with a groan and stretched. Rounding the curtains, he found the lumpy parcel tied with string sitting on Elli's desk, as promised. On the outside, the Clinic's address was written in thick, bold permanent marker in a hand that seemed vaguely familiar to him.

He undid the tie and pulled off the brown package paper to find a brightly wrapped, squarish gift, complete with a ribbon and card, sitting inside. Slipping the card out of the envelope, he gazed fleetingly at the cheerful cover and flipped it open. It read:

_Happy Birthday, Trent!_

_You didn't think I'd forget, did you? I know you aren't in the Valley today, so I couldn't pull a surprise party for you or anything, but I couldn't resist getting you something. You've done SO MUCH for me and it really does mean a lot to me._

_So expect a birthday hug when I see you next. Yes. Plan on it._

_Anyway, I saw this brilliant item and I thought of you. May it bring you much joy! :P_

_LOVE, ELLA!_

Trent's mouth quirked in a shadow of a smile. He was glad she didn't mention the fainting incident, but all the same, her words seemed fake—why could she be this way in writing but so slippery in person?

He slipped his finger down the crease in the paper and tore it open. Immediately, his mouth fell to a perfect 'O' as he registered what he saw…and then lifted into a full-fledged grin.

Still in its clear plastic seal was a fresh off-the-shelf copy of….When Love Blooms in Forsaken Gardens and You Mustn't Pick the Forbidden Bloom_._

The title took up ¾ of the cover and was superimposed in a fancy script over a close-up of Constance falling dramatically into Roland's arms. Regis hung behind them, aiming a sword at the bandit's back and sneering. The DVD rested on top of another gift-wrapped package, and there was another not attached by an elastic to the movie.

Bringing it into the light, he squinted to read the writing on the creased square of paper.

_Hahaha! What I wouldn't give to see your face right now! It must look something like this: "Shining with the shock of a thousand flashing lightning strikes, brimming with the exaltation and joy of one re-encountering his closest friend or finding an oasis in a sun-drenched, thirsty desert. A lone heart sated with what only this singular boon could provide to relieve its ravenous, violent thirst." How was that? Do you think Constance would approve? Anyway, you know what this means—another movie night sometime. Don't make me quote you again, 'cuz I will._

_Anyway, your real non-gag-gift is also included. I hope you like it!_

_-Ella_

Trent smiled and placed the DVD on the desk, letting his fingers linger on the cover. Then he turned his attention to the second gift, wasting no time in unwrapping it.

The torn paper fell apart to reveal a beautiful, detailed sketch of the Goddess Pond area that he spent many a Wednesday afternoon herb-hunting at. Two people sat at the pond's bank; their backs were to the artist, but one was female and blonde, and the other had messy, scraggly black hair.

Where the artist's signature belonged in the bottom right-hand corner was a tiny smiley face.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

**A/N: Sorry if it sucks from Kai's proposal scene to the end-my sister was in my room talking to me the whole time, and I'm not the greatest multitasker ever. xD**

**But I think I got everything done in this chapter that I wanted...(for once)...so HUZZAH! There'll be a wedding next chapter! Disney-themed, no less. MUAHAHAHA. Okay, yeah, anyway. Thanks for reading, everyone! Love you! :D**

**Oh, and if it really sucks, just tell me and I'll try and fix it, haha. I didn't really get a chance to edit it. /sigh/**

**Please review if you get a chance! :] **


	22. Pretty Maids all in a Row

As soon as she slit the pink, perfumed envelope open and gasped as it dumped glitter all over her lap—along with a Bedazzled card—Ella knew that something was up.

Sitting cross-legged on her bed to rest her aching feet, the farmer stretched before sorting through the rest of her mail. Most of it was junk mail or advertisements from the TV Shopping Channel; she even had a colourful catalogue from May's Tailoring full of glossy images of the new winter line. And there was, of course, a letter from him. She shoved all the ads into a pile and placed his letter separate from them before turning back to read the sparkling pinkified message.

_To my dearest friend Ella!_

_I know this is weird and all since I haven't ever sent you a letter before, but hey, I should have! So this is going to be a kind of wedding invitation/ friendly letter all in one, OK? !_

_AH! Gotcha! I bet you're wondering what I meant by "wedding invitation"! Well guess what! I'm GETTING MARRIED! I'M SO EXCITED! KAI PROPOSED TO ME! To ME, Ella! You see I kind of thought he was going to propose to you since he kept going over to the Valley all the time to see you and then Karen's father told everyone that he sold the Blue Feather that was for sale and then he told us it was Kai who bought it after Manna bullied it out of him. And then he gave it to ME! Well I really hope you weren't hoping he'd give it to you 'cuz I'd hate bad blood to be between us but I don't really think you did. He told me about the time he pretended to give it to you and you threatened to kill him! Haha! _

_Anyway I'm getting off topic! Ella my dear good friend, you are hereby or henceforth, whatever it is, officially invited to my wedding! It's gonna be on Winter 20__th__ which will be here before you know it! At least I really hope so! Also it's Disney-Princess themed, but don't worry about your bridesmaid dress (oh yeah, will you please be one of my bridesmaids?) because Sasha is sewing them up but since we didn't have your measurements we just used mine so hopefully it fits but I think it will! Every bridesmaid is going to be a different princess! Guess who you're going to be? Haha! It's a surprise!_

_Oh yeah and here's the second-best part: the guys are going to be dressing up as princes! Aren't you excited to see them all? I don't want to spoil the surprise for you, but I can tell you that the bridesmaid/groomsmen pairs are going to be dressed like pairs from the movies and it's going to be SO. COOL._

_Oh my gosh I'm just so excited Ella, it's going to be the very best day of my life (until we have our first baby of course! Haha) and I just really hope you can come but you can, right? Ella, I even paired you up with Trent so you HAVE to! Okay? I promise he is going to look SO CUTE!_

_Aaah! Anyway please send me a reply ASAP because the suspense is just KILLING me and I MUST know if you can come! But pleeeeeeaaaaaaaasssseeeee say you can Ella! Or I'll write you another letter completely composed of the word "please"! It'll look like this:_

_Please Please,_

_Please please please please please please please please please please please please_

_please please please please. Please please please please please please please please_

_please please please please please please please please._

_Please,_

_Please._

_And I'm not kidding! SERIOUSLY!_

_Anyway, now for the friendly-letter part: Hey girl! How's the farm? _

_Okay so it's mostly a wedding invitation but I tried! So PLEASE answer real quick okay?_

_Very very excitedly and really impatiently, your friend,_

_Popuri Lockwood _

_P.S.: Okay my last name's not Lockwood yet but IT'S GOING TO BE SOON! COME, PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP?_

_FINALLY! _Ella laughed and set it gently aside to massage her temples. It was about time Kai finally noticed Popuri! And maybe some people would complain that he'd noticed too much too soon—after all, a month earlier they weren't even a couple, and now they were engaged—but the farmer didn't have any doubts about their future. Both were adventurous, impulsive and fun-loving, with a common wanderlust. Kai could give Popuri what she'd always wanted: passage out of Mineral Town, and Popuri could give Kai what he'd always needed—stability. A whirlwind wedding seemed oddly fitting for them. _Rick must be having a meltdown somewhere._

She smiled again as she read over the scented stationery. Which princess did she expect to be? One guess: Cinder_ella_. That was _just _the kind of thing that Popuri would absolutely love.

But as she continued to read, her friend's happy words coaxed a sigh out of the farmer. She was glad for the pinkette, truly she was; it was just that _one line _that was causing more problems for her than she already had. Her mouth thinned into a line as her eyes found and came to rest on it again: "_Ella, I even paired you up with Trent so you HAVE to!"_

And it wasn't even Popuri's fault…she couldn't be angry at her for that. It wasn't Trent's fault, either. Rubbing one thin arm distractedly, her eyes strayed over to her kitchen table—her _new _kitchen table that actually rose off the floor and had actual chairs. There, scattered beneath, were pages and pages of scrapped, half-written replies.

She'd felt so confident, so self-assured when she'd pressed the brown-wrapped package into Mayor Thomas's hands for delivery. She'd just rescued her fiftieth sprite, out there in the cold that gusty fall morning, and was seeing the entire world through rose-tinted glasses. She was proud of the sketch that she'd laboured over for so many hours as she rested, trying to perfect her paper-bound likeness of the naturally flawless outdoor world.

Maybe, when he looked at it…maybe it would help him remember her. Remember the memories they shared.

But she hadn't realized that the card and the note—her _confidence_; after all, she only needed ten more lousy sprites—were going to be problems until she got the first letter. Reading his words in his own square, heavy scrawl was enough to jar her into her senses—she _missed _him.

A lot.

She couldn't convince herself that he was just some guy she'd hung out with for part of the year, easily forgettable, and she couldn't fill her days with just pure _work_ and expect to be okay. It was so hard for her to let go of him, especially in the beginning—for most of the year he had been her best friend, confidante; her pillar of strength. Ella only truly realized how much she was leaning on him when that support was wrenched away.

It had left her reeling. She'd never felt as lost or lonely, not even when she first arrived in the Valley. Now, she had a few friends and casual acquaintances; people with whom to discuss the weather over a piping hot cup of tea at the Inn, or to take a stroll with along the Goddess Pond.

Where it all began.

But it wasn't the same. None of them knew her like he'd come to in such a short span of time, and she'd come to resent hiding things from the other villagers. She was always tired, and when they pestered her why she was always busy, why didn't she eat more or sleep more or socialize more, or whatever their nitpick of the day was…sometimes, she lost her temper with them. Sometimes, especially after a long, stressful day of work, she would come back to her tiny house and just collapse on the bed. Wish he were there on the floor to trip over, or puking in the bathroom, or hanging awkwardly outside her door.

But he wasn't, and he couldn't be. Not until she finished her work. Ella realized that—but sometimes, she just really wished she could talk to him again. And… her card had reflected that.

Because he started writing back.

The first letter was in her mailbox the following week after his birthday, when she'd failed to show up at Hardy's clinic after mailing Trent the gift. How was she supposed to give him the promised birthday hug if she couldn't even _touch_ him without burning him? Instead, she'd skittered around the Valley and carefully avoided his routes. If he asked after her, the residents could easily tell him that they hadn't seen her that day. Simple, right?

Well, he wasn't the type to just let things go; Goddess knew Ella was aware of that. She just didn't really expect him to care so much—but was quickly proved wrong on returning home that day in late fall. The day stood out clear in her mind: her farm was littered with the russet gold castoffs of the various deciduous trees, the wind was brisk with winter's coming, and she had a fresh cut on her knee from a dusty day spent in the mines.

The little white envelope in the mailbox had caught her completely by surprise; why hadn't it been there that morning? The only explanation she could provide was that Thomas had dropped it off when he gathered her shipments—but _why? _Curiously, she'd grabbed it and wandered into her house, narrowing her eyes as she recognized the handwriting on the envelope.

_He's writing…to me? Why?_

She felt physically ill with nerves, because it couldn't possibly be anything good. Was he going to demand an explanation? _Is it about my mom? Has something happened?_

No.

It had turned out to be a chatty, casual letter. He wrote about his dull day at the clinic, how it was going to be a beautiful winter in Mineral Town, and how one couple was getting married soon—he wasn't going to spoil the surprise, but it wasn't Elli and Basil (they were probably next, he wrote). He didn't assault her with questions or accusations and only subtly inquired about how she was doing.

It warmed her heart to read, and with trembling hands she'd quickly penned a reply that she never sent.

Despite that, two days later she found another letter in the mail from him. It followed the format of the first, chattering on casually as though she _had _sent a reply.

Which she quickly wrote—but also never sent. For some reason, she couldn't find the backbone or that same overblown confidence she'd sent his gift with. The problem was…how could she keep up this façade of corresponding with him easily—just not in person?

Again, that didn't seem to matter; Trent didn't seem to be expecting replies. Fairly regularly, every 2-3 days, she'd find a little white envelope sitting in her mailbox patiently for her when she returned from the mines. It quickly became something she looked forward to.

Without fail, she wrote him a reply, only to crumple it in frustration and toss it onto the floor on her worse days, or file it away with the corresponding letter he'd sent on her better days. The letters to Trent became a kind of crutch for her; she spilled her heart out in her replies. They brimmed with all her anxieties, insecurities, worries, stresses, and feelings. She chronicled the day's happenings, almost as if they sat down together over tea and asked each other how their days went. It was soothing, like keeping a diary that was also your closest friend.

And the letters _from _Trent, she truly believed, kept her going sometimes. On days when she was discouraged from the lack of sprite recoveries, or when her cows and new sheep were ornery, or sometimes when the weather was just plain miserable and she had to force herself to leave her house—she would sit there and reread them. They were letters he had taken time out of his busy day just to sit down and write; words meant for her and her alone. It was a good feeling, and reassured her that he hadn't just forgotten about her, or dismissed her as some flaky girl he used to know.

But what was she supposed to do when she saw him at the wedding?

She honestly felt guilty thinking of such a trivial thing; it was her friend's marriage, for crying out loud, and the only thing weighing on her mind was how she was going to talk to the man who used to be her best friend? How selfish was _that_?

She had to go; her mind was made. It might even be kind of fun…

But there was one thing she had to do before.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Friday, Winter 19th dawned bright and chilly; pale sunlight filtered in through the tiny square window by Ella's bed. Grumbling, she dragged herself out, wrapping the covers tightly around her body as she shuffled to the fridge. She quickly inhaled some bread and jam—she was too lazy to make toast—and pulled on her warmest flannel shirt and overalls before lacing up her boots.

It was a beautiful morning, she grumpily conceded. Even if there _were_ three feet of fresh snow that she had to clomp through just to get to her chicken coop. Mechanically, she ran through her morning's routine chores: petting, feeding, gathering, shipping…rinse and repeat, for the next building. She had three now: one coop and two barns, both full. Secretly, the farmer was convinced that she was keeping Gotz in business.

With effort, Ella forced her way through the snow to the front of her farm and stepped out onto the cleared-out cobblestone pathway. She could see Graham up by Vesta's farm, on his morning commute, and if she turned the other way she would likely see Chris and Wally kissing their son Hugh goodbye before doing the same. Instead, she headed directly up the winding path by the river before the working mother could spot her and try to read her palms again.

The Goddess Pond area looked beautiful in the winter, all crystalline icicles and glittering snow. Suddenly, it struck Ella for the first time that the pond itself may have frozen over—hurrying past the field and the Sprite Tree, she heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that it was not the case.

The farmer rooted around in her careworn old rucksack until she finally fished out the pretty Fall blossom that had been intended for Elli, so many weeks ago. She strode slowly toward the pond, took a deep breath—hurled the flower in.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"Ella! ELLA ELLA ELLA! Are you ready?" Popuri hollered from the upper floor of Chicken Li'l's, startling the blonde sitting in the kitchen below so badly that she fumbled her handheld Sprite gadget and dropped it with a clatter to the floor.

"Ugh…YES, POPPY!" Ella shouted back as she gathered up her overly large, puffy blue-satin skirt and lowered herself carefully to her knees to scoop up the gadget. It was hard to grab with her long elbow-length gloves and the farmer had to clamp it between both hands to lift it. "ARE YOU?"

"NOOO, ARE YOU CRAZY?"

Ella rolled her eyes and slowly resettled herself on the chair, patting the top of her tight bun. Just like she expected, Popuri had squealed and thrust a Cinderella-esque, pale blue, lace-detail bridesmaid gown at her the instant she arrived the previous night. The skirt was full and long, brushing the floor, complete with a glittery sheer overskirt sewn into the base of the figure-hugging bodice. The capped sleeves were lace-embroidered, the gloves were slippery satin, and even the headband was bejewelled and sparkly.

And the shoes?

Always one for details, Popuri had actually commissioned_ legitimate glass heels_. Yes. Glass. Not plastic…glass. So the farmer was literally walking on glass every time she took a step—and for a klutz like herself, it was a liiiittle terrifying. One false step, and…

"BUT ELLA, I WANT YOU TO DO ME A FAVOUR!"

She groaned. That meant she'd have to stand up yet again…why oh _why _did Popuri have to choose the absolute hardest gowns to move in? "Yeees..?" the blonde called feebly, resisting the urge to rub her forehead and smear her makeup.

"COME UP HERE!"

Oh, great! _Stairs_, the bane of ballgown-clad women everywhere. Ella kicked her shoes off and carefully gathered herself off of the chair to pad over to the stairwell and up to the second storey.

The bedroom floor of the small farmhouse had been transformed overnight to a highly-efficient bridal-preparation-centre. Mirrors and lights were propped up everywhere, everyday clothes lay sprawled across the floor and open makeup cases were sitting on every available space. Karen, in an equally extravagant Belle-themed yellow gown, was forcibly applying lipstick to a protesting Ann who was sporting the light pink full-skirted gown made famous by Ariel. A decidedly uncomfortable-looking Mary, wearing a modest version of Jasmine's blue satin outfit (though the pants had been exchanged for a flowing gauzy skirt), was brushing blush across the bride's delicate cheekbones as Elli—doing a decent impression of Snow White in a much-exaggerated version of the first princess's iconic dress—stood back and nodded approvingly.

But Ella really had no reason to complain; Popuri's gown easily outshone—and outdid—all of the others. Around twice as poofy and complete with a two and a half mile long train (well, not really, but it may still take the entire village to lift) and a tiered veil, it was the epitome of a dream wedding gown, loosely based off Sleeping Beauty's dress—Ella _thought_. It was so dressed up that it was a little hard to tell, with the exaggerated sparkling snowy skirt and shoulder-hugging V-neck. The bride's eyes were squeezed shut as Karen freed Ann and proceeded to coat her eyelids in a shining, icy blue eyeshadow, but she raised her arms as Ella entered and called, "Is that Ella?"

"Yep, I'm here!" answered the farmer, carefully stepping in over the piles of clothes and makeup. "You guys all look great!"

"Aw, thanks!" giggled Karen. "I did all their makeup after yours, and—ANN! Stop wiping your mascara on your sleeve RIGHT NOW or I'll give you eyeliner, too!"

"You didn't give _her _eyeliner?" Mary pouted.

"Ella!" Popuri called, wiggling slightly where she stood. "I need you to do me a favour! Rick's Karen's date so he promised to dress up as, um, Prince Adam—you know, the Beast?—so he needs the hairspray but we just finished with it so I need someone to run it over to the Inn and I can't—"

"Okay, okay, Poppy," Ella breathed, walking over to give her friend a reassuring squeeze. "It's fine, don't freak out! I'll just, ah…where is this bottle of hairspray?"

"Here!" chirped Elli, shaking the can and offering it to the farmer. "I used it last to get my _dahling _curls."

The blonde took it with a grin. "Great, thanks. Weeell, I'll be just a sec!" With that, she thundered down the stairs and almost dashed outside—until she remembered she was barefoot. So she headed to the family closet to find the fuzzy boots she'd worn the night before, and realized they'd been hidden…and a sign had been attached to a clotheshanger above: _LADIES, WEAR YOUR HEELS!_

"Noooooo," Ella groaned, turning around reluctantly to find her fiendish glass "slippers" smiling back at her from under the table. Gritting her teeth, she forced the things on her feet (which looked very indelicate and big in them) and took her first precarious step outside.

Into the cold winter day. She shivered, ground her teeth together and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. _Trent would kill me if he saw me out here dressed like this._

The thought brought a tiny warm smile to her lips.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"I hate these tights."

"Me too, man." Kai slammed his drained mug down on the Inn table and dragged an embroidered sleeve across his mouth. "You'll never have to wear them again though. It's just for today."

"Are you sure?" grumbled his comrade, raising his dark, angular eyes from where they were staring out into space and turning them on the groom. "You guys aren't going to wanna renew your vows in thirty years and make us put them on again?"

"Whoa. Thirty years." Kai's eyes widened. "Hard to believe that in thirty years…we'll have been married for thirty years!"

Trent groaned and let his head fall shamefully to his arms on the table, allowing his drinking partner's comment to pass. "I _hate _these tights."

Kai raised his empty mug and clinked it against the doctor's. "More root beer, bro?"

"Goddess no."

"Why? Afraid of having to use the little boy's room during the wedding?" His eyes twinkled tauntingly.

Trent rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Guess what, Kai? These are your last hours of being single."

It worked like a charm; Kai's eyes zoned out again and he went off on a tangent about how much everything was going to change. Again. Trent checked his watch; it was actually more like one hour, since the ceremony would be starting, in, like…

Well, pretty darn soon.

So soon that Rick was starting to get antsy about his hair, of all things. Trent really couldn't see why the guy needed hairspray; sure, the Prince Adam guy wore his hair in a ponytail, but the doctor was pretty sure that hairspray was not a requirement of that hairstyle. Nevertheless, Rick paced, the blue coattails of his princely jacket flapping behind him.

He picked at the tight Spandex of the pants absent-mindedly. Leave it to Popuri to convince two otherwise sound men—Rick and Kai—to have everybody in the wedding party dress up like Disney princes and princesses. Trent wasn't even sure which Prince he was supposed to be, in his white and gold-trimmed overcoat. They all sort of blended together to him.

He knew Ann with her fiery red hair would likely be Ariel; brunette Karen was probably a dazzling Belle and Elli had let it slip that she was Snow White. That left Mary—who on earth would _Mary _be?—and…Ella. Maybe.

"Maybe" because nobody actually knew if she was coming or not. Trent doubted that she would; she'd been slippery for over half the year, so why should she stop now? It wasn't as if Popuri's wedding would change anything. He sighed and ran a gloved hand through his mussed black hair.

This was going to be a long day, and there was work waiting in the Clinic.

The three sharp knocks sounding on the front door of the Inn jolted both the doctor and Kai upright. Rick clicked daintily across the hardwood floor in his polished black boots and cried, "I'll get it!"

There was a pause as the chicken farmer turned Prince hauled the door open and stuck his head out to converse with whoever was outside. Suddenly, he turned around—still blocking the person with his body until he was sure it was safe—and called out, "Is everybody decent?"

Inside, the men exchanged glances. While none of them felt particularly decent in their tighty-whitey Spandex pants, that was beside the point. The point was that they were all wearing pants at all. Solemnly and with dread, they nodded.

Rick stepped aside to reveal a blue-garbed Princess. She carefully stepped in, shivering violently and rubbing her arms with her gloved hands for warmth. Trent leaned forward and squinted; somehow, he'd missed considering Cinderella as a potential bridesmaid. And yet, the only blonde person in the party would be—

"H-Here's your h-hairsspr-aay," Ella said, shakily holding out the can to the chicken farmer. She danced on the spot in an effort to warm up. "D-Do you n-need help with it?"

"Nope," Rick said cheerfully as he accepted the can. "I'm good. You can go sit down and try to warm up!"

Trent stared openly at her, frozen in place. There she was, just standing there like it was the most normal thing in the world. When was the last time he'd even seen her? Sometime before his birthday, and that was a season ago already.

_And what was she doing running around outside in a sleeveless DRESS? _This was parka weather! Abruptly he stood up, pushing his chair back with a screech—and causing her head to snap over in his direction.

What she did next, he had absolutely no explanation for. Her eyes widened, she grabbed her skirt up into her satiny gloved hands, took a running start—and tackled him to the floor, much to the enjoyment of the others.

"TRENT!"

"…Hello to you too," he groaned dazedly, briefly wondering what pointy thing he'd hit his head off of while trying to figure out where she'd gone.

"Hi!" She suddenly appeared at his side and threw her arms around his neck in a vicelike hug. She smelled like cedar trees and fresh air and hairspray—and she was _so _cold. Something like instinct compelled him to wrap one creamy-sleeved arm around her and pull her closer; as soon as he did, it felt as though everything in the world was miraculously healed and patched up and _right_. This…He missed this.

Except she wouldn't stop _wiggling. _"Trent! Waitwaitwait!" her muffled voice came from somewhere in his shoulder, one hand braced against his chest as she tried to free herself. "Did that hurt?"

He loosened his grip and glared down at her incredulously. "You only _tackled me to the floor. _Yes, it hurt!"

The blonde blinked her heavily mascara-laden eyes and pursed her pink-stained lips, unrepentant. "No, not _that. _Does _this _hurt?" She pressed her two gloved hands to his cheeks and waited expectantly for an answer.

"Uhh…" Was he missing something here? He raised a single eyebrow at her. "No…?"

"GREAT! Let's go sit down. No, wait! Let's hug again first!"

He was, of course, happy to comply as she snuggled in against him again, but he still had no clue what to make of what had just happened. Since when were gloves supposed to be painful? "Ella, you've got to stop going into isolation for years on end. It makes you even weirder, which I didn't even think was possible."

"You jerk," she murmured. "But don't worry, I missed you too."

A season ago, he would have rolled his eyes and stubbornly ignored the warmth blooming in his chest at her words, but right now, who cared? The girl that had been avoiding him for months after he'd come to terms with the fact that he was in love with her was curled up happily in his arms right now, her head nestled under his chin and fitting perfectly into the slope of his neck like a matching puzzle piece. So instead, he held her tighter, biting his tongue on the thousands of questions he was dying to ask in favour of just for once enjoying the moment.

"Ahem."

Rick stood over them, the can of hairspray clutched in one hand and a thin blond eyebrow raised, reminding them for the first time that they were, in fact, _not _the only two people in the room.

In fact, there were lots of people in the room. And all of them were staring at the spectacle on the floor. "Oh," said Ella, as if she'd realized the same thing at the same instant. Quickly, she scrambled up out of Trent's lap and got to her feet, nervously smoothing out her skirt, which the doctor realized for the first time was extravagantly large and full. "Thanks! I guess I should just, er…bring this back, then."

Trent stood up then too, frowning. "Not without a _coat_ this time, Cinderella."

"Coats are for wimps," she said, turning to look at him with an impish smile—which quickly widened and turned downright evil as her eyes travelled up to his hair and then quickly back to the spray can in her hands.

The doctor's grin quickly faded; he knew that look. "What…?" he asked warily, taking one small step back.

She took a step forward, still smiling. "You're wearing the Prince Charming outfit from the Cinderella movie."

That managed to throw him off. "Really, is that what this is?" he asked with genuine curiosity as he examined the top.

"And—you're wearing—tights." Ella tried to contain her mirth but failed miserably. "BAHAHA!"

"Hey," growled Trent. "Do NOT go there. I'm ashamed enough as it is without you giggling at me during the whole ceremony."

"Yeah," agreed Gray darkly, slowly advancing towards her. "What's so funny about tights?"

Ella only laughed harder. "You're trying to—intimidate me—in TIGHTS!"

"There's _nothing _funny about tights," grumbled Kai, plucking at his own self-consciously. The farmer girl just continued to laugh and snort uncontrollably. Harris and Basil, sitting at a table and drinking root beer heavily, glared fiercely at her from across the room.

"I can't believe—they talked you into—_tights!"_

"Oh, Goddess," groaned Gray dismally. "You said that nobody would laugh, Kai, you filthy liar."

"Ella _is_ nobody," Kai said teasingly, and earned a playful punch from the girl in question as her giggles finally died down. "And anyway, quit whining. At least you're not the one who has to get _married_ in tights. My wedding album will forever be corrupted with photos of men running around and posing in pants tighter than any self-respecting man should ever wear…"

"I hate these tights," Trent grumbled for the umpteenth time. And then—something very fragrant was sprayed at him out of nowhere. "Argh, what—"

Quick as a flash, Ella had him pinned against the wall and was pulling and pushing his hair every which way, occasionally punctuating the torture with a spritz of what Trent presumed to be…hairspray. "Gah! Noo, what are you doing!"

"Stop squirming before I spray you in the eye," she ordered matter-of-factly, not budging. "My Prince Charming doesn't have bedhead."

"_What_?" Trent tried to resist again.

"Okay, you were obviously deprived of Disney classics as a child. That would explain a lot. Sometime, we have to watch Cinderella together, mmkay?" She ignored his protests and continued to spritz him as clouds of hairspray rose into the air, slowly sculpting Trent's hair into a Walt-approved masterpiece of coiffery. (Which is definitely a word.)

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They were late!

The mass of self-conscious Prince Charmings and one Cinderella piled out of the Inn, hurrying through the snow-laden cobblestone street to the Church corner. All along the little roads, giant bouquets of beautiful flowers were hung and multi-coloured streamers were strung. The streetlamps were completely decked out in bows and ribbons, and paper lanterns had been hung to serve as light sources instead of the traditional electric lights.

Ella and Trent trailed behind, her feet being painfully pinched in the cursed glass slippers. She was seriously considering just tossing the wretched things under a pew, but she knew that they'd either get lost or Popuri would somehow notice with her Bridezilla X-ray vision. Arriving at the church, breathless and rosy-cheeked, they met up with the other Princesses and hurriedly found their pairs.

Gray, as best man, and his partner Mary would follow Kai in. After them, Karen as maid of honour and her partner Rick would walk down the aisle, followed by Ann and Harris, Ella and Trent, Elli and Basil, and finally the blushing bride—who hadn't arrived yet.

It was time. Carter popped his head out of the engraved church door and gestured discreetly at Kai before disappearing. The beach boy turned, straightened his collar and gave a cocky grin. "Well, guys," he said cheerfully, "It was nice knowin' ya. See ya on the other side!" And with that, he ducked into the church.

Shortly, the couples began following suit. As Ann's pink dress disappeared inside the building before them, Ella's grip tightened on Trent's arm. He seemed to know that she wanted to tell him something as he quickly ducked his head down to her level. "Um, Trent?"

"Yes?"

"…I think you should know that, um, I'm wearing glass slippers."

The doctor chuckled and straightened again, obviously thinking she was making a joke about her outfit. As they took a step together towards the church, she squeezed his arm again—harder—and hissed, "I'm _serious_! What if they break?"

His astonishment was obvious, but the only thing he could get out before they stepped inside the church was, "Whose idea was it to put _you _in _glass slippers_?"

And then, the chill of the cold winter day was wrenched away and replaced by the happy warmth of the people gathered inside, and the overpowering aroma of the extravagant display of flowers—everywhere. All the villagers turned to smile at them and whisper as they walked _very carefully _down the aisle together, Trent's eyes darting in her direction periodically, as if to double check that she hadn't shattered a shoe yet. She poked her tongue out ever so slightly at him to reassure him that so far, all was well.

Ella couldn't help but beam toothily at her parents when she spotted them, sitting second from the front. Her mom grinned happily back, waving and winking, and her father smiled reservedly before raising an eyebrow.

At the altar, they parted; he to go to the groom's side and she to the bride's. Carefully, she lifted her skirt and stepped onto the upper platform to join her fellow Princesses at the rose bedecked altar. An odd thrill went through her, looking out at the crowd—this was _fun_.

A collective "aww" went over the crowd when blushing Elli and Basil walked down, at a noticeably faster pace than Ella and Trent had. The farmer hoped that the discrepancy wasn't too obvious…in any case, it was still better than breaking a shoe and picking shards of glass out of her foot for days.

Just as immediately, a hush fell over the congregation as the door opened for the last time. Light spilled in dramatically as the pinkette bride entered, smiling so hard it looked almost painful, her hair pinned perfectly in cascading curls down her back. She was a vision in white as she stepped daintily down the velvet aisle of scattered rose petals. Her groom watched her every step as she approached, his mouth slightly ajar.

The ceremony was relatively quick. Kai and Popuri exchanged self-written vows; she cried and he smiled harder than anyone had ever seen him smile before. Rick may have also cried (either in happiness or otherwise at his sister's choice), but he later insisted he just had allergies—and Lillia, front row centre, laughed and sobbed in turn.

As soon as the words "man and wife" fell from Carter's lips, Kai grabbed his bride and swept her in a deep dip, much to her delight—and backed it up with quite the unchaste kiss. Grandmother Ellen, frowning, had to put a hand over both May's and Stu's eyes.

Carter hauled the church bell's from the back room and Zack released doves from the front as Kai and Popuri burst out of the church, laughing delightedly and twirling in the gentle midday snowfall. Their guests quickly followed, dancing around and wiping away a tear or two as they all made their way back to the Inn for the reception.

Doug had shoved all tables and chairs aside to line to walls, making room for a massive dance floor in the centre. The main floor, too, was now completely decorated floor to ceiling in flower arrangements; there were even some in the bathroom and the room Gray and Kai once shared upstairs. Guests were surprised as they sat on chairs and realized there were even posies on the very seats. The staircase was lined with flower chains and ropes, and mistletoe was hung in every doorway, as Popuri pointed out that it was "practically Christmas".

Toasts were made, first dances were had (Popuri and Kai's to Donna Lewis' "At the Beginning") and Ella and Trent got separated. He was repeatedly pulled aside by Carter, both Basils (Mary's father and Elli's date) and even Mayor Thomas, while she disappeared quietly into the crowd. Maybe if she eased off slowly, it would be less startling—for everyone—when she left shortly before midnight. If she got lucky, maybe nobody would even notice.

Several times she was invited to dance; sometimes by a friend like Gray or Basil, and sometimes by the group of other Princesses. And though she used her glass shoes as an excuse, the truth was…she really didn't feel like dancing.

Kai and Popuri looked so happy—every person deserved that happiness in their life. She could have a tiny taste of it, for today and today only…but today was almost over, she realized brokenly, glancing at the clock. 11:30 p.m.

The party was winding down: the fast, upbeat songs giving way to the slower, gentler songs of earlier in the evening as the bride and groom prepared to leave for their honeymoon ferry. Trent politely backed out of the millionth conversation with Thomas about ideas for livening up the clinic for Christmas as he glimpsed a flash of blue disappear into the crowd.

He dodged through the surging, pulsing crowd, reaching his hand out to snag the white-gloved wrist but missing every time. Finally, she surfaced outside of the crowd and headed for the stairwell. Quickening his pace to a jog, he caught up with her and managed to catch her hand.

Ella turned around immediately, eyes narrowed. "Oh, hi, Trent," she murmured, quickly pasting on a smile.

The doctor furrowed his brow at her behaviour. "Hey," he said, pulling her back towards him by the arm. "What're you running away from, Princess? Are you back to avoiding me?"

Although he asked in a gently teasing tone, the blonde was aware of the subtle hurt in the question. "Oh—um—" she began helplessly as he continued to reel her in. "Uh, well, it was getting kinda late so I was just going up to get my stuff."

"Really?" he asked, releasing her once she was standing directly in front of him. "Both my watch and Doug's grandfather clock say eleven thirty."

"Yeah, I know. I didn't—I wasn't planning on staying till twelve, actually," she finally admitted, pulling her gaze away from his searching one. Darn it—she was so _close_…

Trent examined her face carefully, noting the brief flash of conflict before she turned away. That last part, he knew, was true at least. But she hadn't answered his question—and he knew she'd avoided it on purpose. Just like everything else. He just…didn't know why.

With a sigh he pulled her forward again and wrapped her in a hug, closing his eyes as he rested his chin on the top of her head. She stiffened, but he ignored it. "Ella," he began quietly, "I just want you to know that…I really did miss you. You know, when you disappeared off the face of the planet for no apparent reason. And I don't want you to do it again, so—if that's what you're doing, then—I guess I want to ask you not to. Please."

Ella squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists, her nails digging into the palms of her hands through the fabric of the gloves. Why did he always make this so _hard? _Just as she thought she might actually get away without any issues this time. She'd seen him, gotten her fill; well, maybe not quite. But it would be so much easier for her if she knew that she wasn't hurting him by this, too; it seemed she had to pick her poison, hemlock or nightshade. The choice was made, though, and she had to stick to it.

"I missed you too," she said honestly, finally bringing her tensed arms up to loosely hug him back. "A lot." He didn't reply, only sighed, which hit her harder than words ever could.

"Can you tell me why?" he finally asked. The question she'd been dreading.

Though the Goddess hadn't expressly forbidden his knowledge, the farmer knew she would not condone it, and she hardly wanted to endure that wrath again—especially when her mother's health was on the line. Never had she regretted that summer day more, the day she went to the Goddess Pond and prayed with all her might—and even some she didn't have—that somehow her mother be saved. She'd pledged to do anything, a deal was brokered, and that was that.

On top of that…telling him would entail admitting how she felt about him. In all honesty, she didn't think she was brave enough to do that. People tended not to react well when they were told, out of the blue, "_Oh, well, you know, I'm kind of in love with you, but the problem is the goddess wants me to rescue her before we get married or anything, so she put this curse on you that hurts you whenever I'm around…"_

In answer, she only sighed and tightened her grip on his shirt. She felt him turn his head to the side to rest his cheek on her head, and her heart gave a painful twinge. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to turn her face up to him and press a quick kiss right on his cheek, to try to apologize and explain everything.

"Last song!" Doug's voice called, carrying over the noise of the crowd that the two had completely tuned out.

"The Eagles," Trent murmured as a melancholy piano chord sounded over the speakers. Ella only nodded, recognizing the song herself.

_Hi there, how are ya?_

_It's been a long time_

_Seems like we've come a long way_

She felt his body shift as she slowly stood back from her, gently detaching her fists from his coat and slipping one into his own. "May I have this dance, Princess, before you disappear again?"

Ella laughed sadly, looking away. "I—I'm wearing glass slippers, remember?" she managed to choke out. She tried to smile, some of her good humour returning. "And I may or may not _accidentally _tread upon your feet, good sir."

"Nonsense. Kick the stupid things off, you're just making excuses," Trent teased lightly, pulling her towards the dance floor.

Both slippers went clattering to the floor as Ella stretched her feet. "Very well, then, I suppose one dance couldn't hurt."

"Excellent. Now remember what I taught you back in the summer…_one _two three, _one _two three."

Easily, the blonde fell into step with her partner, grinning up at him. "You offend me! I completely remember this."

_Why do we give up our hearts to the past?_

_And why must we grow up so fast?_

"I'm impressed," he murmured into her ear, sending chills down her spine. They twirled and glided smoothly, savouring the moments when they again felt completely separate from the rest of the world. But Ella couldn't help but continue to look up at the clock. Soon…the Goddess' "gift" would wear off and she'd have to split, and she soon found that she couldn't even look at Trent anymore.

The song was ending, she realized with dread, and unconsciously tightened her grip on his hand.

_It's nice to hear from you again_

_And the storybook comes to a close_

_Gone are the ribbons and bows_

_Things to remember, places to go_

_Pretty maids all in a row_

"I have to go," she whispered, releasing his hand and stepping back, glaring down at her bare feet on the wood. "Thank you for the dance. And—please don't stop writing to me."

Without waiting for a reply, she dashed off towards the stairs, grabbing her shoes quickly before running up. She reappeared before long, arms hefting a canvas bag stuffed with clothes and toiletries. Trent followed her with solemn eyes as she skirted around the walls of the room to quietly slip out the front door, unnoticed by all.

But he distinctly saw something small fall from her overburdened arms as she made her escape, and as soon as an opportunity presented itself, he made his way over to the door. There, resting sideways on the snow-soaked doormat was one glass slipper.

His mouth quirked in half a wry smile. Oh, the irony.

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**A/N: Song credits: Pretty Maids all in a Row, by the Eagles.**

**Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. C:**


	23. One of Those Days

**A/N: Have I told you guys lately that you rock? No? Okay: YOU ROCK! Thanks for all your support, favouriting, and reviewing :) I absolutely glow for days after getting them. Anyway, here's chapter 24, and um...hehe :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon, which may be a real shocker after 24 chapters of saying so x_X**

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"No—_No! _Stop! Heel! Heel, River, HEEL!"

"SHOULDER!" Hugh called out over top of Ella's voice, shrieking with laughter and nearly doubled over in breathless mirth at the scene before him. The blonde farmer, coatless, chased after her tiny shin-high dog in the snow as he growled playfully, sometimes shaking his head and shredding her beaten-up grey coat where it was clenched between his jowls. He easily evaded all of Ella's attempts to capture him with an agility she didn't know he had.

"ENOUGH! _Heel_, boy!"

"Leg!" Hugh countered joyfully.

"_Heel!_"

"FOOT!"

This day had seemed ten years long to Ella, and the best part was that it wasn't half over yet. Things had started out badly when she'd rolled out of bed and landed, with a smack of the cold floorboards, on her face. Grumbling, but still determined to make the best of the day, she'd propped the door open to air out her house from the previous night's failed dinner and begun to make oatmeal on the dinged-up old stove when River had decided to go play in the snow.

Which was fine, except for when he ran into Oakley's stall and scared the living daylights out of the big, strong, brave stallion with a single bark. The horse had flown out of the stable, all stomping, flailing hooves and rolling eyes, and galloped out into the street. And _that's _when things started going downhill.

You see, the townsfolk tolerated Ella's horse—just not when he was loose in the village and indifferent to property damage and/or the trampling of people. Without bothering to grab a coat or turn the stove off—or change out of her jammies, for that matter—the farmer had blasted out of her farmhouse and run down the rampant stallion, all in her nightgown…which was actually just an extra-large T-shirt with Hello Kitty on it. Yes, it had been a bad morning.

But Hugh thought it was hilarious, and had made the decision then and there that he had to have a puppy. He followed her back to her farm and Ella had been trying in vain to explain to him that River could not give puppies because he was a boy dog since.

He still didn't understand, and what was more, he had called her "sexist", which was apparently a word Kate had taught him.

On top of everything, it was Tuesday; the Supermarket in Mineral Town was closed, which meant Ella couldn't order more oatmeal packets. She had to accept that breakfast that day wasn't happening. When she'd finally managed to change into her work clothes and get some chores done, River reappeared and began chasing chickens; why he was being such a rascal today, Ella couldn't fathom, but at one point she had discarded her coat and thrown it in the snow after overheating…and River had happily snapped it up and run off with it, which led her to her present predicament. (She _had _been meaning to teach the little dog more commands, but had never actually gotten around to it.)

"HEEEEL!" Ella called desperately, beginning to slow down in exhaustion. River barked happily and dashed off into town, and the farmer watched sadly as the stitching on one of the sleeves frayed. She would probably never see the coat again; the little dog likely had big plans for a secret doggy hideaway den in the forest made of shredded-Ella-coat.

"ARM!" Hugh called after the dog's disappearing form, for good measure. He waved goodbye and grinned as Ella slowed to a walk beside him, panting heavily and putting her hands on her hips. His eyebrows drew together in disapproval at her condition.

"Why are you tired? Dad says you should be the fittest person in the whole valley! Are you secretly fat?"

Ella closed her eyes and continued to pant, reminding herself that Wally and Chris would be put out if she punched their kid. "Yes. Yes I am." _Let's go with that. _

"Oh," he replied, seeming content with the answer. "Hey Ella, can I have a pony?"

"Ask….your mom," she breathed, finally regaining some stamina.

"Can your horse have babies?"

_Oh Goddess, here we go again. _"Nooooo, Hugh…"

"Why?" he asked, crossing his arms. "Is it because he's a _boy _horse?"

The farmer let out an exhausted half-titter, half-moan. "Yeessss…"

"WHY CAN'T HE HAVE A PONY?"

She finally turned to face him, the corner of her mouth twitching with the intensity her forced smile. "Hugh, I think Dr. Hardy would be delighted if you asked him these questions!" _Also, baby horses are not the same thing as ponies…_

Ella was also slightly at odds with the sardonic doctor at the moment, and thought this the perfect opportunity to foist Hugh on him and get a little bit of revenge in the process.

"Really?" the little blond boy asked, his mouth falling slightly open. "The cyborg?"

"…Don't call him that, he's not a cyborg…" the farmer groaned as she turned and headed towards her silo, shivering slightly as the heat of the exercise began to fade. She missed her coat already.

"But he has a cool eye!" Hugh insisted, trailing after her and looking cozy in his puffy, red winter coat. It looked brand new and Ella eyed it jealously. Even if she was secretly fat…she could probably still mostly squeeze into it. Well, maybe not her arms…

"Yeah…so, why don't you go ask him?" the farmer asked absent-mindedly as she checked her fodder supply. One thing was going well today, at least; the silo was still more than half full.

"Wi' 'oo 'ome wif meh?" Hugh asked, sticking his tongue out to catch a snowflake as they began to fall. Ella let her forehead rest against the cool stone of the structure and took in a deep breath of the crisp winter air before slowly exhaling. _Easy there, take it easy, he isn't TRYING to be annoying...I think._

"…Fine, yes, I'll come! Let's go…" she sighed, rubbing her arms together in an effort to glean as much warmth as possible and thinking fondly of her (likely deceased) grey coat.

Little did she know her day was about to get so much worse.

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"…And here's Lumina at the bridal shower…doesn't she look _darling _in that dusty pink dress? I tell you, she didn't even want to wear it at first but now she absolutely _adores _it, doesn't she? Oh, look! Here's the wedding party, all dressed to the nines! Mary very nearly didn't make it, showed up in the nick of time…" Romana rambled happily, running a wrinkled finger down every photo on every page of the thick, leather-bound album.

Hardy, Trent, and Elli sat stiffly at the table where the wizened woman had laid the album and had and listened politely for the past few hours as she prattled off every detail from every photograph taken at her beloved granddaughter's wedding the week before. Yes, they were happy for Lumina and Rock—even though they thought it an odd match—but even Elli, who had been wildly interested in the pictures at the beginning of the afternoon, was bored.

It didn't help that they'd seen many of the same photographs earlier that morning, when an ecstatic Ruby (who was starting to think that nobody would ever marry her son) had thrust a similar album in their direction.

Weddings were happening _everywhere_. Marlin and Celia had also tied the knot sometime earlier that season, and Carter and Flora had eloped—although it took everyone a good three days to realize they were gone. (Ella was the only person who ever really went down that way, but she had a cold for a few days and hadn't been down to the mines, Ruby told them over coffee. She panicked at first but soon discovered the note they left in their tent, and then alerted the villagers to the event.)

Ella also appeared in many pictures, in matching dress with the other village girls and smiling at the camera, often giving the bride bunny ears in candid shots. There was one photo of her that made the medical team laugh out loud—it was taken apparently after Lumina had tossed her bouquet to the crowd of eager single bridesmaids, and Ella had caught it. She held it high above her head like a trophy and was sticking her tongue out childishly at Muffy, who was pretending to try to steal it.

"That's so Ella," Elli giggled. Narrowing her eyes teasingly at Trent as he and Hardy laughed in agreement, she gave his foot a slight nudge under the table and added, "and we _all _know what a girl catching the bouquet means…"

"She'll be married next!" Romana agreed, nodding her head wisely. "Doubt it though, with the way Nami and Gustafa are going at it!"

"_Nami _and _Gustafa_?" repeated Elli, her mouth agape as she leaned across the table.

Trent sank back into his seat, groaning inwardly as the women began to chatter excitedly. He wasn't sure how many more hours of inane gossip he could possibly take. Beside him, Hardy shot him a sympathetic look and nodded meaningfully towards his leather briefcase sitting by his chair.

Hardy was right: Trent could use this time to catch up on some of his studying. As he lifted the leather case to the table, he glanced over fleetingly at the clock when he was sure Hardy wasn't watching.

Where was Ella? It was almost two p.m.! They were usually out foraging by now, and she would have already been and gone…

In the back of his mind, he wondered if something was wrong. Well, more wrong than usual…at least he knew that there hadn't been a blizzard recently. He'd heard there had been one earlier in the season, but not since.

He gave a start as the doorknob turned. Immediately, everyone save Romana perked up and turned to stare at the door expectantly. A cold winter breeze found its way in first, weaving icily through the comfortable warmth of the house, and was shortly followed by Hugh in a big, heavily-insulated red coat, clutching the hand of a familiar blonde farmer as she slipped inside after him with her head bent against the wind.

Trent exhaled almost silently in relief, and Elli shot him a coy look. He glared back.

"…because they don't have the right parts, Hugh!" Ella was explaining, sounding exasperated.

"And girl dogs DO?" he demanded, a pout beginning in his full lower lip.

"Yes! Hardy, will you plea—" and then, the farmer glanced up. She froze and stared at the people assembled before her.

"Hi, Ella!" the nurse chirped happily. "You're late today! Trent here was starting to think you'd be a no-show!"

"Elli!" Trent snapped.

The farmer didn't reply. She stared, looking stunned and slightly horrified, loosening her grip on the little boy's hand.

"Yes, we are truly a sight to behold," Hardy grumbled sarcastically after a pregnant pause. "Plan on gracing us with the melodious sound of your voice sometime today?"

A startled heartbeat passed in silence before both Trent and Elli whipped around to glare at him. "What was _that _for?" the younger doctor demanded.

"Someone put on their grumpy-pants today," Elli agreed irritably.

Ella didn't even react to his comment. "It's….._Wednesday_?" she finally gasped. "Oh my GODDESS, it's _Wednesday? _Why is it _Wednesday?"_

"Because it's the day after Tuesday," Hardy answered logically. "It's always been called Wednesday, didn't you know?"

Trent clenched his jaw as his temper flared—what was the _deal _here? Ella just walked into the clinic and his mentor was already attacking her? What did he want to do—scare her away? "Hardy, why don't you just keep your ingenious mouth shut until we _ask _for the benefit of your shining brilliance to explain the world's greatest mysteries to us?"

"Yeah, why are you being such a jerk, Doctor H?" Elli demanded, glaring at her friend's mentor. Romana glanced nervously back and forth between the sparring parties, while Ella still stood frozen to the floor behind her. Her eyes flickered briefly over to Trent, fleetingly grateful for sticking up for her, but the fact that it was Wednesday was still at the forefront of her mind.

It was…..the Harvest Festival, and she had completely forgotten to get anything for the festivities. Why? Because mentally, she'd been a day behind all week.

"Harvest Festival….Wednesday….UUUGHHH!" she groaned, pulling at her hair in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Elli asked worriedly as Hardy and Trent glared daggers at each other beside her.

"UUGH! I can't believe—I completely forgot—_GODDESS_!" Ella turned on her heel and made for the door.

It was Trent's, Elli's, and Hardy's turn to stare after her retreating form, stunned, as the door swung closed behind her. Finally the elder doctor crossed his arms in his chair and sat back, remarking, "Hm, yes, always such a pleasure to see her pretty face."

To his surprise, the door creaked back open and Ella's windblown head poked back inside his house. "Oh, and Hardy? Hugh has some questions for you. He wants to know why River can't have puppies—oh, and he wants details. Bye!"

She shut the door again. Hardy's mouth fell slightly open as Hugh smiled up at him—and Trent and Elli desperately smothered their laughs until their sides ached.

Good ol' Ella.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

"Where _is _she?"

Trent didn't need to stand on his tiptoes to see over the heads of most of the people present, but no amount of looking revealed the absentee farmer.

"Who?" asked Hardy through a mouthful of food, seeing nothing wrong with their present company—which was practically the entire valley, all partaking of the delicious steaming pot of stew provided free of charge. He decided he rather liked this festival.

"Who do you think, O Great One?" Elli asked sarcastically. Her bowl was already empty and she was considering asking for seconds.

"Oh." Hardy rolled an eye. "Ella, I suppose."

"You suppose? I thought you knew everything," Trent shot back. "What's the deal with you two anyway? I can't believe you said some of those things to her—what's your bloody _problem_?"

"_She's_ my problem," the older physician grumbled darkly into his bowl as he sat down at an empty bench. "What's _her_ problem, you should be askin'! Lad, I can tell how much you care for her and she's playing you for a fool. I'm stickin' up for you."

A light blush rose on Trent's cheeks as his mentor stated his feelings so plainly, so openly, but he stubbornly ignored it. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he sat down next to the man and, with effort, controlled his temper to a degree. "_Fine_, let's look at this theoretically," he snapped, a small bite still present in his tone. "Let's pretend for a minute that I…care for her, and she—wait a second, how is she _playing _me?"

Hardy took another bite of stew. "Only comes to you when she needs you. Soon's she's done, ignores ya."

Trent stared at the slats in the wooden bench, stunned at the statement. Was that true? Sure, he'd helped her recover from a few nasty accidents, and sure, she'd never actually paid him a dime. It was also true that once she stopped needing him, once her accidents stopped—she'd stopped seeing him altogether.

But still, this was a pretty wild accusation. Would she actually go to a date festival with him if she was just using him? Would she actually invite him over for a movie night—spend money on a gift—waste hours of her life on drawing a detailed sketch of one of his favourite areas for his birthday?

Unless she didn't actually draw it; Cody could've, Trent realized. And the DVD wouldn't have been a huge price to pay for the continuation of a charade. But…it still seemed wrong. She wasn't _like _that.

She was flaky, yes, but she was also earnest and affectionate, and playful. The first thing she'd done when she laid eyes on him on Popuri's wedding day was tackle him to the ground in a fierce hug. They'd cuddled together and watched a dumb movie, fell asleep curled into each other.

She was concerned when he first fell ill, and they'd goofed around countless times. There was no way all those memories were just a struggling farm girl kissing up to a physician for free medical care. They definitely had an undeniable connection, of some sort—or, used to, anyway.

"Don't be ridiculous," Trent finally spat. Hardy sighed.

"When will ye see, lad? The girl's no good for you. Thought I saw a connection with you too. Think it's gone." He slurped up more stew and continued. "Look past the good looks'n charm at the evidence, lad. I'm tryin' ta help."

There was a long pause as the physician's dark-haired protégé fumed beside him.

"How," he finally began venomously, "could you _ever _come to that conclusion and try to convince—you don't know the first _thing _about her! All you've seen is—"

"Ella gettin' herself into scrapes and you gettin' her out," Hardy cut in, slamming his bowl down hard on the table. "And then when we're s'posed to be meetin' for business, its Ella this, Ella that—"

Abruptly, Trent stood up. "I'm not listening to anymore of this garbage," he snarled. "You clearly don't have the smallest clue what she's actually like if you really think she would sink to that!"

"Think about it, lad!" Hardy growled. "Why else is she so different? Avoiding you? Yeah, I've noticed it, boy. Doesn't need you anymore. Does it hurt? Well, she doesn't care, does she? _When will you see?"_

"I'm out of here." Trent stalked away, past the giant cooking pot and beyond all the people, and off of the beach completely. The lightly forested, snowy area outside was much more peaceful than the crowded hubbub of the beach, he noted gratefully as he wandered past ice-accented trees with his gloved hands deep in the pockets of his black coat.

He tried to think about something else—anything, the species of plant growing, the hibernation tactics of nearby animals—but could never grasp and hold onto another topic. His mind seemed bent on returning to the one he didn't want to face.

What if Hardy was right?

He made a few good points, though Trent loathed to admit it. And, despite himself, the younger physician even came up with a few more—like the letters.

He'd been sending her one every few days since practically the beginning of Winter, and hadn't received a single one in return. Why not? He could believe that she was busy; surely farming was time-consuming and exhausting—but not one single letter all season?

He must seem like such a moronic desperado, with his ceaseless attempts to contact her. Maybe that's what the problem was; he was being too clingy.

But, he knew that wasn't it. He'd left her well enough alone, lately. Today he hadn't even managed to have small talk with her, and they hadn't really spent time together since Fall.

Come to think of it…it all boiled down to that date again. Maybe she realized she couldn't keep the charade up anymore, and wasn't willing to pretend to go on dates with him.

But he still couldn't believe it; she wasn't like that. Wasn't dishonest. He _knew _her better than that; she was empathetic and tried her best to be kind (until she lost her temper), and would never do anything to hurt anyone. Her mind changed sporadically and without warning, but she would never lead anyone on.

He knew that because of Kai. She'd gone on one date with the beach boy, and they remained friends—but she made it clear that he wasn't for her. He had gone on to marry Popuri while she stayed single, but they were still close. Trent knew that door had been open, she _could _have ended up married to Kai if she really wanted to. She hadn't pretended to be happy for the surfer's sake when he jokingly presented her with the Blue Feather, and nipped that situation in the bud before it ever got to that point.

As for the letters—he remembered vividly the night of Popuri's wedding, as Ella was making her escape. She'd paused to tell him to keep writing. While it didn't explain anything, it at least let him know that she was reading what he wrote, and didn't want him to get discouraged and stop.

Trent couldn't dismiss all the time they'd been together, either; for two seasons, it was fairly substantial. They didn't mean nothing now just because she seemed to want to ignore them, and as far as Trent was concerned, they would _never_ mean nothing. They would always be something to him, even if the way things were now never changed. He kicked at a small stone half-buried in the snow and followed it up the path, musing to himself.

"Trent! Wait up! Thank the Goddess, I've been looking _everywhere _for you!" a familiar voice shouted behind him.

The doctor gave a start in surprise and froze mid-step. "Ella…?" He half-turned to see the blonde running haphazardly in his tracks, blonde hair whipping behind her in the wind and cheeks red from running. As she finally neared him, he overcame his surprise and closed the distance in a few strong strides, heart pounding erratically and gut beginning to wrench warningly. "What's the matter? Is everything okay?"

"No…I need…your help," she panted, hands resting on her knees as she tried to regain her breath.

Trent felt his spirits slump. "Of course you do."

But when she raised her big, blue, panicked eyes to him, the physician knew he would never be able to say no. "I'm sorry that I—always need something," she gasped out, as if able to read his mind. "But please—Faye's calf—"

His mind raced. He remembered her mentioning, way back in Fall, that she was going to try another Miracle Potion on the cow despite the fact that the last one failed. Quickly, he took her elbow and began jogging down the path, pulling her along. "Come on, there's no time to waste!"

"Thank you, Trent," she panted as she regained enough energy to jog beside him.

And just like that, he was reeled back in.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

They charged through her snowy field and threw open the door of the first barn. Inside, Faye lay on a bed of hay, swathed in foamy sweat and lowing insistently. The other cows had already been corralled in a corner of the barn, out of the way, and Trent wasted no time in throwing his black medical bag on the ground and kneeling to examine the cow's condition. "We don't have Elli, so you're going to have to play nurse."

"Done," Ella replied instantly, wringing her hands fretfully. "What can I get? Towels?"

"Yes, wet if you can. And one dry."

"Got it." She turned and dashed out into the field again as Trent stroked the mama cow reassuringly.

Ella was back sooner than Trent would have deemed humanly possible, but he didn't question it as he took the pile of dampened terry cloth from her. "I also brought water bottles for us," she added, her brow creased with concern.

"Thank you." Trent hastily unzipped his bag to hunt for some equipment, and the first thing that came tumbling out was a brand new copy of _Romeo and Juliet_. He stared at it for a second before tossing it over his shoulder and hissing, "Darn it, Elli, don't you know they both _die _in the end?"

Ella didn't get a chance to reply. Faye's entire body suddenly convulsed, straining, and Trent's eyes widened. "Whoa, look out, here it comes!" He adjusted his position, and Ella began to worry when she saw his mouth drop open.

"How's it coming? Posterior?" she cried in a panic.

"No, it's—" Trent paused in wonder. "It's—it's coming just fine!"

"_What_?" Ella demanded, half-laughing. "It's going well? Something is wrong here!"

Trent joined in on the stupefied laughter as Faye strained again, pushing with all her might, and more of the calf slowly appeared. Nose, eyes, ears, neck—body, after a particularly tense few moments—legs, hooves. All there. All perfect.

The newborn calf splayed out in the hay, kicking its legs out in confusion and shivering in the cold. Trent threw the dry towel over it and rubbed it down while Faye pulled herself to her hooves, flicked her tail, licked her nose, and finally ambled nonchalantly over to her baby. Dimly, Trent became aware of a pressure on his forearm; looking down he realized Ella's hand was clamped tightly over it as she watched the calf intently. As he watched her, it occurred to him that her face looked slightly blue.

"It's alive," she finally breathed, before a smirk crossed her face.

"You mean IIIIIT'S AAAALLLLIIIIIIVE!" Trent corrected, channeling Dr. Frankenstein, before breaking out into an evil cackle of victory. She laughed giddily and released his arm, shuffling over on her knees to hug Faye around her sweaty neck.

"You just had a baby! No big deal!" she laughed, turning around to look at Trent. "Treeennnt! Can you believe it? A whole new life is here, just because of—well, mostly you! I don't know what I'd do without you!"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous. It wasn't all me," he replied, sounding as noble as he fought down a blush threatening to rise. "…Faye helped too."

"You jerk," Ella laughed. She flopped back into the hay beside to stare up at the ceiling. "I guess, all in all, this day wasn't _so _bad."

"What do you m—" the doctor began, before he was rudely interrupted by a flash of yellow light.

Sparkles showered over the both of them as Ella immediately sat up, wide-eyed, and stared. A small form began to glow, and before they knew it, a little Harvest Sprite stood before them, looking stunned.

_Not again_…Trent thought, momentarily blinded.

"I'm back? !" the Sprite exclaimed incredulously. "Wow! Ella, thanks so much! Call on me at the Sprite Tree if you need any help!" Waving happily, he disappeared in the second flash of light.

Trent blinked dazedly, thinking idly that anyone with epilepsy should be warned against spending time with the blonde farmer at his side. But she was preoccupied.

Still frozen, kneeling in the straw, Ella's heart thudded. Stopped. Thudded again—heavily. With trembling hands she dug sloppily through her overall pockets—pulled the little notepad out frantically and flipped to the last sheet, where her Sprite tally was kept.

Sixty? No.

There couldn't be sixty.

The booklet shook in her hand as she painstakingly counted every single slash across the tiny page, before finally crossing off the last group of four to add her latest rescue. Twelve groups of five…

…made sixty.

_Sixty_. Six-zero; her goal. Done and done.

Her breath caught in her throat; the Goddess was back. And that meant…

Trent stiffened in surprise as he felt a form collide against his body, forcing him down onto the hay with its weight. Sitting up, he stared confusedly at the blonde girl practically sitting on him, opened his mouth to pose a question—

—but never got the chance. Not giving him any recovery time, she threw both her arms around his neck as she used to in her hugs…and then, in the surprise of his life, she pressed her lips against his.

For a split second Trent couldn't move. He felt numb all over, completely powerless in his shock. But it didn't take long for his brain to snap out of its dumbfounded daze and his muscles to burn as though on fire—he wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her closer against him, and finally, _finally _kissed her back.

The outer world didn't exist. Didn't matter.

He could have stayed like that for a long time, but like he'd learned most things were with Ella, it wasn't that simple. She began to slump in his arms, their lips broke contact, and for a second he was sure that she was about to pull sharply away.

But, as it turned out, she had just passed out from exhaustion in his lap. How _romantic._

Trent wasn't about to let that discourage him, though. Throwing one final glance over his shoulder at Faye and her new calf, he gathered his blue-faced girl up in his arms and carried her bridal-style out the door and across the field with a wide, unconscious smile goofily splitting his face all the while.

He nudged her farmhouse door open with one foot and set her carefully down on her bed, adjusting the pillows and pulling her soggy boots off before wrinkling his nose at the smell. Something in here was badly burning...

It didn't take long for him to figure out what; he followed the column of black smoke billowing from a pot sitting on the stove. After airing out the house he dumped the charred, blackened contents of the pot in the snow outside and stared at it incredulously; he couldn't even figure out what it had once been, in its past life.

Whatever it was, she had burnt it real good. He shook his head and smiled, not for the first time doubting her ability to live by herself. Coming back inside, he wiped his shoes on the mat before kicking them off, and wandered over to sit on the bed beside her.

Trent wove his fingers in between her pale, slender ones and closed his hand around hers. It felt good to hold her hand again; felt right. He rested his head against the wall behind the bed and was considering dozing off when a crumpled ball of paper at the end of her bed caught his eye.

Maybe he shouldn't have read it, but curiosity didn't allow him to sit there and ignore it. Inching forward, he clamped it in between his feet and then tossed it back at himself so that he wouldn't have to let go of her hand to retrieve it. The paper landed neatly in his lap, and he quietly smoothed it out—careful not to disturb her.

_Fall 20-something_

_Dear Trent,_

_Yeah, I'm not 100% sure which day it is. I think it might be the 24__th__, but I hope it isn't—I think there's a festival that day and I'm not sure which one it is!_

_Anyway, today I bought a TON of yam seeds because I hear they grow really quickly, and I wanna pull in some last-minute cash before the season ends. I want to add some kind of heating to this drafty house before winter sets in. Or maybe a new barn…I know once the new calf is born (I'll probably ask for help again when it comes, AREN'T YOU EXCITED?) there won't be any room in the barn. I would ask Gannon just to make an expansion, but he doesn't do them anymore! Weird, huh? He used to do them for my mom, but I guess that was a long time ago. Maybe he hated doing them and as he got older, retired from it. Oh well, all the power to him._

_Well, I didn't really do much else today. Except I kind of missed you, a lot, but that's true of most days. Blahblahblah, mushy stuff. No wonder I never send these things; you'd never talk to me again!_

_Faye still looks good. Hardy says she's doing fine._

_No HS today._

_Love, Ella._

Trent stared at the piece of paper in shock. So she _had _been replying? Things just kept getting weirder and weirder, but at least this time—for once—it was in a decidedly good way. No more secrecy. The letter warmed him inside and out; he relaxed against the wall again, gazing down at the farmer beside him as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She shifted slightly in her sleep to nestle closer to his warmth.

The questions and answers—everything could wait. He would wait, too, if he needed to; forever, even. Hardy was wrong, and things couldn't be better.

* * *

**A/N: :))))))**

**Oh, yeah, also, sorry if it feels a little rushed there; I kind of think it does. Probably because I'm trying to leave enough time to cram for chemistry xD (LOLjk not happening, it's already 9:30) but...yeah. :3 **

**Also! I know I messed with some of the festivals in there, I just had it planned that way, and...artistic license? :D?**

**So, what do you think of how they came together? **

**Thanks for reading, please leave me a review if you get a chance. 'Bye! **


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